The Stranger Vol. 23, No. 12

Get Hitched at Gay Bingo!

Couples needed for on-stage wedding ceremony or vow renewal to be held at Gay Bingo on February 15, 2014

TO WIN: Tell us in 500 words (less is OK) about your relationship and why you deserve to have a public ceremony on stage in front of 700 of Seattle’s wildest, raunchiest, albeit most generous members of the community. Five lucky winners will be chosen to get married (or renew their vows) at our Bridesmaids themed Gay Bingo on February 15!

Submit your essay online at llaa.org/gaybingo

Submissions must be received by January 15 at Midnight. A complete set of contest rules may be viewed online. Tickets go on sale to the public on December 9 at strangertickets.com

Proceeds from Gay Bingo benefit Lifelong AIDS Alliance’s work serving those living withillnesseslife-challenging such as HIV/AIDS

STUDY GUIDE

QUESTIONS FOR THE STRANGER , VOLUME 23, ISSUE 12

1. REBECCA BROWN has another essay in The Stranger this week. Her work has appeared here with frightening regularity over the last few years for someone whose name does not appear on the masthead of the paper. If you wanted to contribute frequently to a newspaper as notably cash-poor and moralitychallenged as The Stranger, what do you believe you’d have to do to “earn” the job? If your answer includes sexual favors, please be sure to employ the Latinate form in your response— e.g., “fellatio”—to avoid unnecessary vulgarity.

2. But why would anyone want to work for The Stranger? Then their byline would appear proximate to BRENDAN KILEY’s turgid theater reviews, which manage to make two new plays sound as uninteresting as… well, a piece of writing by Kiley himself. If you can, list one reason working alongside Kiley would be considered anything but a detriment to one’s career.

3. For the first time in 13 years, MEGAN SELING has made a smart decision. She’s leaving Seattle behind for Nashville, which is a city that is utterly unlike Seattle in at least one respect: It has a respectable and worthwhile alternative weekly. But since leaving quietly would be the sensible option, Seling instead

pens a parting essay that makes several questionable claims, including the absurd assertion that Nashville has better chocolate and coffee than Seattle. Further, she peppers her essay with overemotive ALL-CAPS statements, indicating that, if anything, her time at The Stranger has done the opposite of assisting in her maturation. Write a letter back to Seling that politely explains the grievous error she made in giving the best decade of her life to The Stranger, but also offers hope for her future in a city located in the heart of the conservative South. Be the better person in this particular writer/reader relationship and wish her luck, even if you do not really mean it.

4. CIENNA MADRID writes another bitter article about the city council’s positive relationship with mayor-elect Ed Murray, whom The Stranger did not endorse in the last election. Pretend that Murray risked his life saving a basketful of kittens from a burning car in the middle of a busy freeway. As a thought exercise, write a Madrid-style headline to top a biased Stranger story about Murray’s brave rescue. Bonus points if your headline attempts to arouse the ire of people who prefer dogs as pets and works in a pro-transit bullet point in 10 words or less.

LEAD DEVELOPER Jay Jansheski

Berliner,

CIRCULATION ASSISTANT

Paul Kavanagh

PUBLISHER Tim Keck

LAST DAYS

The Week in Review BY

DAVID SCHMADER

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11 This week of good news and bad news kicks off with a dog lover’s nightmare in Connecticut, where today 56-year-old Anne Murray was hanging out with the 2-year-old pit bull she’d helped raise from puppyhood when the dog attacked her, tearing out one of her arms, ripping off one of her hands, and leaving her with bite marks all over her body. As the Connecticut Post reports, officers from the Wilton Police Department arrived to find the wounded Murray hiding under a vehicle in her driveway and the dog standing in the street. “The first arriving officer, Capt. John Lynch, determined that the dog was an immediate threat to the victim and others nearby, so he shot and killed the

THANK YOU FOR SENDING ME AN ANGEL

There are angels in the city—and we walk among them, unknowing. Last night, I came face-to-face with the pavement. Literally. It was dark and rainy, I was on my bike heading toward home after an evening meeting. Just past the I-90 lid, something happened— I’ll never know exactly what—but next thing I know, I’m at the side of the road wiping blood off my face and feeling like I am in someone else’s body. Two men are looking at me with concern, asking me if I’m okay, where I live, do I need an ambulance, and who knows what else. I must not have been making much sense, but at least I could answer my name and nod when they offered me a ride home. They didn’t panic and call 911, abandoning me to the medics, which would have traumatized me even more, worrying about the hospital bills to come. They picked up my broken bike lights and put them in my pocket. They put my bike in the back of their truck and delivered me to my door safely. This should not be extraordinary, but it is, and I wish I had a way of thanking them. So this is for those two guys and others like them. Tell them I’m okay. Tell them I had a concussion and my face looks like I lost badly in a bar fight, but I’m alive and recovering. Tell them I feel so lucky that they came along when they did. Tell them our city needs more kindness between strangers.

Anonymous

dog,” reports the Post. “The pit bull’s remains will be tested for rabies at a state laboratory.”

Condolences to Ms. Murray, who’s listed in stable condition at Norwalk Hospital and who, despite the loss of her arm and hand, got off easier than the four other people—including a 25-year-old woman in North Carolina, a 5-yearold boy in Oregon, a toddler in California, and another toddler in Arizona—who were attacked by pit bulls over the past eight weeks and died.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12 In stupider news, the week continues in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, where police are seeking a man who accidentally fired his gun while discussing the Second Amendment at a GNC vitamin and supplement store. Details come from Greensboro’s WFMY-TV, which reports the unidentified man was discussing gun control with a GNC employee when he took out his gun and accidentally fired a round into the store’s printer. “The employee told police the man said he ‘could not go down for this’ and fled the store,” reports UPI. “Police are asking members of the public to come forward with any information about the incident.”

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13 In better news, today brings not one but two stories of hope-bestowing human progress . Story number one comes from Stanford University, where a new study by social psychologist Jon Krosnick has found that “a vast majority of red-state Americans believe climate change is real and at least two-thirds of those want the government to cut greenhouse gas emissions,” the Guardian reports. “The research… confounds the conventional wisdom of climate denial as a central pillar of Republican politics, and practically an article of faith for Tea Party conservatives. Instead, the findings suggest far-reaching acceptance that climate change is indeed occurring and is caused by human activities, even in such reliably red states as Texas and Oklahoma.” Story number two comes from Hawaii, where today Governor Neil Abercrombie signed into law a bill extending marriage rights to same-sex couples, making Hawaii the 15th US state to support marriage equality. Congratulations and thank you, Hawaii!

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14 The week continues in the battered-by-insanity wilds of Toronto, where over the past couple hundred hours, Mayor Rob Ford has admitted to driving while intoxicated, buying illegal drugs, and smoking crack while in a drunken stupor. He also bragged about eating his wife’s pussy at a press conference, and then apologized about using the phrase “eat pussy” at a follow-up press conference. Over the next couple hundred hours, Ford will proceed to knock over a city councilwoman while running through City Hall and leave her with a fat lip, profess to giving up alcohol after finding Jesus, vow to run for the seat of prime minister of Canada, and refuse to resign or relinquish any of his mayoral powers after doing all of the above. Early next week, the Toronto City Council will vote to strip Rob Ford of basically all mayoral powers except the ability

The K Is Silent, as in “I’m Knowledgeable About Knives from Vermont” by Kshama Sawant

Hello, Seattle! Game-changing socialist Kshama Sawant here—hope this finds you well. As you can imagine, I’m gearing up for all sorts of hard work in my new role as a Seattle City Council member, but before I get into that, there’s something I need to clear up once and for all.

I understand that the opening “K” in Kshama suggests that one should attempt to pronounce the K. One should not. It is not “Kuh-shama,” as in “kablooey.” Phonetically, it is “Shama,” as in “shama lama ding dong.”

No doubt The Stranger will have endless fun with my name in this stupid “New Column!” format, and more power to them. In fact, here are some suggestions: “Futura Condensed Is My Favorite Font by Kshama Sawant,” “My Current Mood Is Nonchalant by Kshama Sawant,” “I Ain’t No Horny Debutante by Kshama Sawant,” and for those Yeezus fans out there, “Hurry Up with My Damn Croissant by Kshama Sawant.” Rhyme all you want. Just ignore the K. Thank you.

to wear a sash that says “Mayor.” Stay tuned. •• In much sadder news, today Alex Calderwood—the beloved former Seattleite who cofounded the epochal Rudy’s Barbershop and Ace Hotel chains—was found dead in a room of the newly opened Ace Hotel in London. Calderwood was 47, and the cause of his death remains unknown. “Alex was our teacher, mentor, guru, and most importantly our dear friend,” reads the notice on the Ace Hotel website. “We will miss him.”

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15 In much better news, the week continues in San Francisco, where today a wondrous number of citizens joined forces to help one sick kid and make a million other people weep at the kindness of strangers. At the center of the story: a 5-yearold boy named Miles, who’s been battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia since he was 20 months old and was recently granted a wish by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. “He wanted to be Batman,” said Patricia Wilson, the Make-AWish Foundation’s Bay Area executive director, to the San Francisco Chronicle. To make Miles’s dream a reality, Wilson put out a call for volunteers to help turn San Francisco into Gotham City, and was met with an avalanche of enthusiasm that soon went viral beyond anyone’s expectations. Which brings us to today, when Batkid Miles fought crime in a San Francisco that brought the fucking ruckus, from police chief Greg Suhr issuing Commissioner Gordon–esque calls for Batkid’s help to the thousands of fans who lined the streets to

cheer him on. Thank you, San Francisco. We needed that.

•• Meanwhile in Michigan, today 54-yearold Theodore Paul Wafer was charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter in the shooting of Renisha McBride, the 19-yearold woman who appeared on his porch in the middle of the night (presumably seeking help after a car crash) and wound up fatally shot in the face. As Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy told reporters today, “We do not believe he acted in lawful self-defense.” Currently being held on $250,000 bail, Wafer faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Stay tuned.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16 Nothing happened today.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17 The week ends with bad news in the Midwest, where today a “severe weather system” involving at least 67 tornadoes slammed Illinois , destroying scores of homes, wounding scores of people, and leaving at least six people dead.

Condolences to everyone, everywhere (but especially Illinois and the Philippines). Send hot tips to lastdays@thestranger.com.

Get tested for rabies at THESTRANGER.COM/SLOG

Kshama Sawant’s Brash Style

Catapulted Her to Victory

Will It Also Be Her Demise?

BY DOMINIC HOLDEN

Within a few minutes of Richard Conlin conceding defeat last Friday, his socialist challenger, Kshama Sawant, issued a statement. First she politely acknowledged Conlin’s

16 years of service on the Seattle City Council, and then she twisted the knife: “These exciting results show a majority of voters are fed up with the corporate politicians.”

She’s right, of course.

Sawant’s refreshingly blunt rhetoric about “corporate politicians” (career incumbents backed by wealthy donors)—combined with specific proposals to raise wages, lower rents, and tax millionaires—was exactly what catapulted her to a surprising victory. Agitprop yard signs, communistic red T-shirts, and even her Twitter avatar all blazed with Sawant’s ubiquitous theme: Pass a $15-minimum-wage law now. She was also brash. When announcing her campaign in March, Sawant called Paul Allen’s Vulcan a “shark devouring real estate,” and her spokesperson recently wrote that Conlin is “a cancer on the council.” Then last week, as late vote tallies showed Sawant eking out a lead, she responded to mayor-elect Ed Murray’s support for a $15 minimum wage by saying, “We were calling for that before it became cool.”

She’s right again—sorta.

But the same cutting language a candidate uses on the campaign trail can come back and cut the candidate off at the knees once she’s elected. Those “corporate politicians” she’s talking about? They are Sawant’s future council colleagues. And uncool Murray? Sawant now needs him to sign that wage bill into law. As a lawmaker, Sawant’s statements don’t exactly scream, “Let’s work together.” Some of them actually seem kinda shitty. Especially when dealing with politicians in Seattle, whose egos bruise like pears.

A few offensive statements from Sawant may be enough for critics to brand her as

divisive and ideological, the sort of tarring and feathering that helped sink Mayor Mike McGinn. And being painted with that reputation would not only burden her as a council member, it would be used by critics to sink wage-reform legislation.

“Our campaign is as close as you can get to a referendum on a $15-an-hour minimum wage in Seattle,” Sawant says. “I think there are lots of big business and corporate interests, and people in the political establishment who represent those interests, who will want to create distractions by focusing on personal characteristics. I don’t expect them to be happy about what we are talking about. But they may not have a choice if they see a groundswell of support for these ideas.”

Indeed, many politicos believe that if Sawant can introduce her wage bill—packing hearings with supporters and union workers—the council will feel mandated to pass it. Which is why the best way to stop such a bill is to kneecap her credibility first.

she could actually introduce a wage bill.

“I think they are going to be unconsciously thinking of her as archetypal and a stereotype,” says Nick Licata, a four-term council member, about the rest of the council. To win them over and get the five votes needed to pass a bill, Licata offers some advice: “It’s really important to stick with the facts and not be personal.”

Many will be champing at the bit to be offended by something Sawant says, eager to argue that Sawant must gingerly use polite language. The New York Times recently wrote about the “War of Umbrage” during the 2012 presidential election, in which Obama’s and Romney’s camps feigned episodes of indignation at slights from the other side. Likewise, many will gasp—as Connelly already has—at Sawant for being impolitic, for holding rallies, for being a socialist.

A few offensive statements from Sawant may be enough for critics to brand her as divisive and ideological.

Already, rumors are swirling about stymieing Sawant. Some pundits view her leftist rhetoric, and her penchant for holding rallies, as narcissistic. One such pundit is Joel Connelly, columnist for Seattlepi.com, who said Monday in a public Facebook post that Sawant was “self-intoxicated” and compared her to a “show horse.” Meanwhile, city hall insiders tell me that some may try blocking Sawant’s appointment to any council committee on which

If she only holds rallies and refuses to work with her colleagues, yes, that’s also a problem. However, she hasn’t even been sworn in.

What should be offensive to Seattle is not rough language. It should be offensive if some folks attempt to undermine a candidate—and the voters who elected her—before her first day on the job. What should be truly offensive is fabricating umbrage over personality to distract from policy—a living wage that a majority of voters seem to support.

Already, the mood among the council is “apoplectic,” according to an inside source at city hall. Conlin’s unexpected defeat unravels a knot of plans for the New Year. Council members had already jockeyed close to their committee chairmanships for 2014, but with Conlin leaving the land-use committee, we can expect Machiavellian jostling for committees all over again. Next, there’s the thorny question of who will be council president (everyone previously assumed it would be Council Member Tim Burgess). And finally, there’s the question of what Sawant will do if she actually disrupts the council’s orderly universe, in which consensus and politesse have been a religion. They’re afraid she’ll be like a mountain lion set loose in a grocery store.

For his part, Burgess says Sawant “will be welcomed” and he doesn’t “anticipate any problems.” Asked about her committee appointment if he is council president, Burgess says council members “usually” get some of their committee preferences and he doesn’t “see any reason why that practice won’t hold with council-member-elect Sawant.” But if Sawant can’t sit on human rights or budgetary committees, she may be unable to introduce a wage ordinance within two years.

Perhaps unfairly, Sawant will be tested on short-term efficacy. Voters this year approved a new system to elect council members by districts, which mandates an all-council-member election in 2015. If Sawant fails to land a victory on her own within the next two years, she’ll be vulnerable. Democratic Party operatives are already fielding candidates to challenge Sawant in her native District 3 (which includes Capitol Hill, the Central District, and several lakeside neighborhoods)—with a plan to take advantage, no doubt, of her acrimonious style.

So it stands to reason that she must avoid stoking the flames with incendiary rhetoric. Everything I have written so far is sort of true, but it’s also bullshit. That framing is designed to put Sawant on the defensive, and it assumes that Sawant must behave like a “Seattle Nice” politician. It’s also questionable to criticize a woman politician for being aggressive—men don’t generally get that treatment (McGinn notwithstanding).

“We did not run this campaign to be yet another cog in the machine but with slightly shinier moral credentials,” says Sawant. “We are here to make real change happen in a highly unequal society in which a tiny elite holds the power, so clearly you cannot be worried about them being against you, because they are going to be.”

One donor to those future challengers’ campaigns? Vulcan, almost certainly. After all, Vulcan and its employees gave more than $6,000 to Conlin’s last reelection campaign, city records show. Sawant refuses to curry favor, however, saying that she is not going to “run an exciting campaign that galvanizes mass support and then go quietly to city hall and sit inside my office and meet with Vulcan executives.”

But business cannot be her enemy—she must compromise (Sawant acknowledges that “compromise is inevitable”).

Ironically, the biggest booster of her socialist agenda is among the city’s most unrepentant capitalists. Nick Hanauer, a venture capitalist at Second Avenue Partners, says Sawant’s victory “is awesome.” Hanauer was a leading backer of a $15-an-hour-minimum-wage initiative that appears to be passing in SeaTac, but he comes from the opposite perspective as Sawant. Hanauer contends “that the most pro-business thing we can do in America is raise the wages of low-wage workers.” And if Sawant wants to collaborate on her primary issue, it requires her working with unlikely business bedfellows.

“I don’t know Sawant,” Hanauer says, “but if her politics are anchored on the idea that we all are better off when we all are better off, she will be a highly constructive force on the council.”

MERIDIAN $799

The Emperor’s New Staff

City Council Gives Murray Money That It

Took from McGinn

BY CIENNA MADRID

When the Seattle City Council adopts a $4.4 billion dollar 2014 budget on November 25, one item will stand out: a $750,000 funding bump for Seattle’s next mayor, Ed Murray. “This would be in addition to the [mayor’s] base budget of roughly $3.75 million,” explained Ben Noble, director of the city council’s central staff, at the council’s November 8 budget committee meeting.

Why is this line item so unusual? Four years ago, Mike McGinn was elected mayor. That same week, the council cut $524,891 in staff funding for the new mayor’s office. Another $500,000 in staff funding could not “be spent until… the Mayor submits a plan for how policy functions will be organized in the Mayor’s office,” according to the 2010 budget.

Now it’s the opposite story. On November 5, state senator Murray was elected. Later that week, the council’s budget committee proposed adding $750,000 back into the staffing budget for our next mayor, no strings attached.

How this huge sum will be spent is unclear. Jeff Reading, a spokesman for Murray’s transition team, explained, “It’s likely that there will be new positions… but it is too early to say.” And, oddly, Murray’s staff insisted the council spontaneously offered the money, while the council said Murray requested it. “It seems like a reasonable request from the new mayor,” Council Member Nick Licata said. “However, it’s a lot of money. He cannot create new positions without our authority, and I don’t see him being able to just increase staff salaries.

Hood vs. Hood

Will Council Districts Result in More Fights Between Neighborhoods?

BY ANNA MINARD

In a budget battle last week, it was West Seattle versus North Seattle. And in true Seattle Nice style, it ended in cheerful compromise—but only after raising concerns that council districts will promote pork spending that divides neighborhoods.

On November 8, three days after voters passed a new district model for future Seattle City Council elections, council transportation chair Tom Rasmussen put forth a funding plan for a project in West Seattle, where he lives, that would turn Fauntleroy Way Southwest into a “green boulevard.” That caught the attention of some city hall staff: If Rasmussen seeks reelection in 2015, he may well seek it in the newly drawn 1st District of West Seattle, and the project in question looked like a generous gift to that district. By all accounts, this is a great project, one that’s been a long time in the making, and the kind of pedestrian-friendly infrastructure the neighborhood needs. But when he proposed funding it by pulling $500,000 from an equally pedestrian-friendly project in Northgate—a half million to help plan pedestrian connections, including a footbridge, from the west side of I-5 to the future light-rail station to the east—neighbors got pissed.

And with good reason. “Taking that money from [pedestrian] bridge planning could jeopardize my effort to get $3 million in the state transportation budget for the bridge,” says state representative Gerry Pollet (D-46). Meanwhile, Feet First, a pedestrian advocacy organization, sent a letter to Rasmussen on

My own inclination would have been to have Murray report back to the city council to let us know how he intends to spend the money.”

When called for comment, several council members, including budget committee chair Tim Burgess, declined to explain the huge cut made to McGinn’s staffing budget—and why it was abruptly reinstated three days after the 2013 general election.

One explanation could be that, four years ago, the city was amid a financial crisis. Hard cuts needed to be made. Those cuts came from, among other places, the mayor’s office. Four years later, in a healthier economy, those cuts are being reinstated. Coincidentally, days after the election.

It stretches credulity to dismiss petty politicking.

However, this explanation doesn’t take into account the intervening years, as the economy revived. And, frankly, it stretches credulity to dismiss petty politicking as at least one motivation for the cuts. Four years ago, the city council was facing a new mayor they did not endorse. Subsequently, they cut his staff budget by more than half a million dollars a year, and then complained about how ineffectual he was. And how difficult to work with. (The council also twice froze McGinn’s money for transit planning.)

This year, the city council welcomes a mayor they approve of—four council members even endorsed Murray. Subsequently, they reinstate his staff budget by $750,000.

The move fortifies the argument that McGinn’s early mayoral problems were due, at least in part, to obstructionism at the hands of the city council.

Murray should be thankful the council likes him.

November 15 stating that slowing down the planning around the light-rail station could jeopardize grants critical to funding the bridge. North Seattleites were also upset.

“I don’t want to read into this that it’s about neighborhood district politics,” says Pinehurst resident Renee Staton, who’s been lobbying for the bridge for a long time. “But right now, we have no council members who live in District 5”—that’s the North Seattle district where Staton lives.

Staton is not accusing Rasmussen of funding a pork project, but the frustration that no one represents North Seattle’s interests, while some current council members may be gearing up for a district run, permeates a lot of talk about that lonely district up north.

Rasmussen says he’s absolutely not playing pork politics.

In the District 5 Facebook group, members grumbled that this money was going to Rasmussen’s “home district,” with no one around to do the same for them.

For his part, Rasmussen says he’s absolutely not playing pork politics. “I strongly support both of those [projects],” he says. “I still represent North Seattle as much as West Seattle.” With this budget proposal, he says he was just “trying to schedule it so we can do both.” But after the outcry, he changed his mind. On November 18, Rasmussen announced he’d leave the Northgate money alone, while funneling other money toward the Fauntleroy project.

One takeaway: Although this fight may not be an example of pork spending created by districts, it’s certainly a harbinger of the inter-neighborhood pork fights to come.

Turn Off

Police Disable Massive Surveillance Network After The Stranger Reports Its Existence

BY BRENDAN KILEY

Almost a year after it was installed without notifying the public, but a mere six days after The Stranger first reported on its existence—and its potential for surveillance abuse—the Seattle Police Department announced it would turn off a wireless mesh network in downtown Seattle.

“The wireless mesh network will be deactivated until the city council approves a draft policy,” police spokesman Sergeant Sean Whitcomb told The Stranger last week, “and until there’s an opportunity for vigorous public debate.”

That sends the issue to Seattle City Council member Bruce Harrell, chair of the council’s public safety committee. “I told the police department: ‘This isn’t a game of 20 questions; you have to err on the side of transparency,’” Harrell said after police announced their decision. “I don’t want to be blindsided by something as public safety chair, and I don’t want the public to be blindsided by general surveillance.”

Purchased with money from the Department of Homeland Security, the mesh network—which consists of dozens of routers mounted on utility poles throughout downtown—is a powerful tool for sending vast amounts of data, including streaming video from security cameras. It also has the potential to track and log the movement of wireless devices (including phones and laptops) without a warrant by triangulating

SOURCES SAY

• “I am surprised and disappointed,” acknowledged 16-year Seattle City Council member Richard Conlin, referring to Socialist Alternative challenger Kshama Sawant’s stunning 9.05 percent swing from election night to November 15—the night Conlin officially conceded. “I think people of Seattle, generally, when they think of socialism, we think of Sweden, and that’s not a bad model,” Conlin generously added.

• Speaking at a November 17 Kshama Sawant victory rally, King County Labor Council executive secretary David Freiboth kicked off his remarks by admitting, “This is one of the few times I’m happy we were wrong.” The KCLC had endorsed Conlin.

• Bleeding hearts, rejoice: The Seattle City Council’s 2014 budget includes $130,000 to fund the young-adult shelter at YouthCare’s James W. Ray Orion Center, located at the bottom of Capitol Hill on Denny Way. When coupled with a $120,000 budget allocation from the King County Council, the sum will be enough to keep the 20-bed shelter open on weeknights for another year The city council is slated to approve the city budget on November 25.

• SeaTac Proposition 1, which would guarantee a $15-an-hour minimum wage, looked to be in peril last week when it had only a 19-vote lead. But Prop 1 now leads by a small but likely insurmountable 46 votes out of 5,944 ballots cast. The battle now heads to the courts, where opponents will argue that the measure both lacked sufficient

their location via radios inside each of the network’s routers.

While the mesh network has only been installed downtown, the SPD has stated that it hopes to extend the mesh network throughout the city. The possibility of a police department creating a historical digital map of the movements of personal wireless devices through Seattle—or to use such a system for locating individuals in real time— without governmental or civilian oversight has serious implications in terms of warrants, probable cause, and other checks and balances in American jurisprudence.

The SPD purchased and installed this mesh network—along with the surveillance cameras in West Seattle, which were part of the same DHS-funded project and caused controversy earlier this year—without disclosing details about its capabilities to the city council, the mayor, or other elected officials. That upset civil rights groups including the ACLU and the Seattle Privacy Coalition, both of which noted that the SPD had not delivered rules about how the network will and will not be used to the city council despite an ordinance passed earlier this year mandating that policies for all city-owned surveillance equipment must be reviewed and approved within 30 days of installation and activation.

Though the SPD began this program under the radar during Mayor Mike McGinn’s administration, mayor-elect Ed Murray will inherit the problem. So far, he has declined to comment via a spokesperson.

“Our position is that the technology is the technology,” Whitcomb said, “but we want to make sure that we have safeguards and policies in place so people with legitimate privacy concerns aren’t worried about how it’s being used.”

signatures to qualify for the ballot and is outside the scope of SeaTac’s municipal authority. But if voters can set a $15 minimum wage in SeaTac, we can set a $15 minimum wage in Seattle. And if we can do it in Seattle, we can do it in cities throughout the nation. Millions of low-wage workers are looking to SeaTac to lead the way.

• The race to replace Dwight Pelz as Washington State Democratic Party chair just got a bit more interesting with the news that former Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest political director Dana Laurent is throwing her hat into the ring. Laurent has a résumé rich with relevant experience as a grassroots organizer, party activist, political fundraiser, campaign manager, and political strategist, and she’s been enthusiastically endorsed for the job by former senate majority leader Lisa Brown. But don’t expect her impressive credentials to stop critics from attacking the 39-year-old Laurent for her “youth and inexperience,” which is misogynist code for “having working ovaries,” something women in politics are discouraged from possessing.

• Spotted dining together in a Queen Anne restaurant the weekend after the election (with respective spouses in tow, it appeared): failed school-board candidate Suzanne Dale Estey and the victor of the other available school-board seat, Stephan Blanford.

• On Tuesday, November 19, Seattle police arrested at least four people at the Central District’s Horace Mann building for criminal trespass. Community groups had been essentially occupying the building, which is owned by Seattle Public Schools, since summer, in protest of the district’s racial inequities. Check thestranger. com/slog for more on this story.

TIGER HEALTH CLINIC

The Widow

Iknow the right word is “widower” but everyone turns into a girl when the person they love most dies. Their bodies get small and they make small sounds. They don’t know what to do. Everyone dying turns into a girl too. Their eyes get surprised and wide and they look at you like “What?” but you don’t know. We were all at the hospice to help Julie die. The three of us, her husband Bob and Tony and I, had been there all along, and

Brian was coming up from California because we told him we thought it would be soon. Brian had been made a widow too, back in the ’90s when Jim died. Julie and Bob had taken Brian out a lot after that, to dinner at a new place every week, to shows and movies, etc. The rest of us had lost people too but only friends or family, not our mate. So if anyone knew what it was like, that would be Brian. Plus, in the past few years, Brian had gotten a new, good life. He’d met a great guy, another great guy we all adored, and he and

the guy, Eric, had adopted a kid and moved to California and gotten married. When people get close their bodies get light, like sticks or wadded-up paper, and you can move their limbs like a doll. Their heads don’t, though, their heads mostly stay the same, but heavier somehow, and harder without their hair or only baby hair where it was starting to grow back. You can learn how to move their bodies, you lift them slowly and tell them what you are doing, I’m lifting your arm, your leg, I’m putting my arm be-

The nurse looked at Bob and found a room and gave me a box of Kleenex and Bob and I went into the room and he broke down. I don’t know what to do, he said, I don’t know what to do anymore.

hind your back and I am going to pull you up, I’m turning you on your side. But their heads are so heavy, like a rock, but covered with something thin and tearable that you can feel when you lift it up to plump the pillow or change the sheets or straighten the neck, if it is bent, to help them swallow or if they are trying to say something or look at you.

Sometimes you looked away from them and when you looked back their whole face looked like teeth like they were almost already a skull.

Bob and Tony and I were there the last few nights whereas before most nights there had been only one. My girlfriend Chris had to work so she went home to sleep then went to work then came back after. The three of us stayed except to take turns to go home to change and shower. We’d lie on the couch or on one of the big chairs in the waiting room and try to sleep until whoever was with her would come out and say could you spell them and you would. In the waiting room sometimes you were two, but sometimes only one because you needed to walk around. There was the hall and the nurses’ station, with the night nurse behind his computer and the light from his computer screen that made his face look blue and he’d look up and smile kindly and ask if there was anything he could do although there wasn’t.

There were the stairs and the elevator and other floors and the woman at the front desk, Jeanine, who I had known back when all the guys were dying during the epidemic, or you could take a small chair from the waiting room into the hall where it was always light and try to read or sit there with your eyes closed.

When Julie had gone in they’d said it might be a few days, but it was weeks, and one of those last nights I went to Jeanine and said, “She just keeps hanging on…” There was something in my voice that I felt bad about, but there it was. “She’s still driving that boat,” Jeanine had said. “I know,” I’d said, ashamed, but glad I had been about to say it out loud to someone. “It’ll get over,” she said and I said yeah.

Sometimes you’d look and it was like their eyes were gone, like no one was inside them anymore.

I’d gone with her to doctors’ appointments and chemo and the hospital a lot. Bob had to work; he could have taken more time off, they understood and were kind to him, but he needed to. He needed to do something besides take care of her, which he did all the time, especially at night, which no one else did, which he told me once, but never

again, when she was sick or out of her head or he had to give her fluids or nutrition or clean her up. Some of us had offered to help but they didn’t want it.

I work mostly at my desk, and I can take my computer anywhere so I could be a lot with her. I’d meet her at chemo after she’d been dropped off, or when she was in the hospital I’d get there in the morning and I’d bring coffee and muffins and the Times and Bob and I would read it aloud to us all and drink coffee and then he’d go to home to shower and then to work and I would stay with her.

Other people came and went so I got to come and go too. She slept and listened to books on tape a lot. I talked about what I was working on and sometimes she’d get a book on tape about whatever that was and we would talk about that. She wanted to talk about other things, she told me more than once, and that she needed to laugh. But sometimes we didn’t say anything at all.

One time at the hospital they were doing the checkout to send her home and she started going not right in her head. They said she was fine to go home but Bob said did she have to. The nurse looked at Bob and found a room and gave me a box of Kleenex and Bob and I went into the room and he broke down. I don’t know what to do, he said, I don’t know what to do anymore.

They let her stay in the hospital another couple days and then a room opened up and she went to the hospice. By then she and Bob had talked and she had decided. He hated, he told me afterward, that she had decided that; he’d wanted her to be home. But she didn’t want to be “a burden” to him; he hated the word, he said, because she would never be, but she didn’t want him to have it at home or worry so she went in.

One time at the hospice when she had to go to the hospital so they could drain off fluid, the way they’d done a few times before, it wouldn’t drain. I’d gone with her—they’d driven us there in a medical van, it was late in the afternoon—and all of us were shooting the breeze, the doc and the nurse and the tech guys, we all knew each other by then—until her doctor said to me, Let’s go outside. So he and I went out in the hall and he said it wasn’t just fluid anymore, it wasn’t something you could drain. I called Bob and told him and he said he’d meet us back at the hospice as soon as he could—he usually stopped for dinner on the way—then her doc and I went back in the room and he told her.

I sat in the back of the medical van as they drove her back to the hospice. She lay on the med bed partially strapped and partially hooked and the cute young med tech guys flirted outrageously with her. She rolled her eyes and dished it back and I said she was shameless, an incorrigible tramp, a hussy, etc., and that I would have to tell poor Bob. But then as soon as we all stopped laughing she looked terrified. I took her hand and we

sat and said nothing the rest of the way while the guys fiddled with the machines.

We took turns in the waiting room and with her in her room.

We turned out the waitingroom lights to sleep and there were shades you could pull down but light still came in and around the slats so it felt like it was never really night, like you were waiting and waiting for something that never came. But later you realized it had because the light went from less to more and the shade from dark to beige to pink then bright and then you realized there were parts you could not remember, you must have slept, and that sounds of the morning were beginning.

There were cars and buses, etc. outside and inside trays with metal clanking and smells of steam and food. There was the squeaking of peoples’ shoes in the hall and people who said good morning and the smell of coffee.

In the mornings we traded off to go home then came back.

I walked home and had a coffee and a shower and changed. I’d get something for me and the boys at the bakery across the street when I went back. I sat on the couch; my hair was wet. I sat with the cat and pulled his ears, which he loved; he purred and gave me little tiny bites.

After a while, I went out to water the lawn. I was standing there with the hose when Tony drove up. He usually walked. He didn’t get out of the car but said I should come. I’m watering the lawn, I said. He said Bob said I should come. I’ll finish the lawn, I said, and he said, No, now, and I then heard him. I turned off the water and shut the house and got in the car and we drove back and nothing had happened.

Whatever it was, the raggedly breath or juddering, that noise she made, had stopped, and she was quiet and looked asleep.

Bob looked like himself but also not, like he’d shrunk into a girl but also he was sweaty and needed a shave.

Her head on the pillow was calm and still. Her mouth was slightly open and you could see the movement of air on her lips whenever she breathed. She looked very young but also something else.

Sometimes they lie with their mouth ajar which makes it hard to swallow, so sometimes you touch them beneath the chin, to see if it closes easily, then close it to make it easier for them and also for the dryness of the lips. You also can put things on the lips, like Vaseline or lip stuff. Also you can put things in the mouth, a Q-tip type thing with moisture so they can suck.

A few nights before my mother died, one of the home hospice nurses—we had been able to keep her at home—told us that sometimes the last gift that a mother gives her kid is not to die in front of them. She doesn’t want you to be the one to have to remember that. Sometimes they prefer to die alone or with someone else who won’t be so destroyed. She lasted longer than anyone thought. You can’t believe how long they can when they’ve been off their fluids and everything for days. It’s like doing it is very hard, like even if they want to, if they’re “ready” the way some people like to say, it takes a long, long time, it’s very hard, it’s labor.

Sometimes we turned on the TV and sort of watched but without the sound. She’d liked it when all of us together could watch a movie (early Woody Allen, Mad Max, etc.) with popcorn and beer or Gatorade, then later when she was sleeping more, she said she wanted us all to watch, but she’d doze in and out and

sometimes when her eyes were closed, the sound would seem to upset her, but she still didn’t want us to turn it off, so we kept it on and watched without the sound. We watched and the soundtrack was popcorn and beer and the drip and breath. Sometimes you’d look around and see that everyone’s eyes were closed.

Chris was able to leave work early— they had been being really good to her—so she came down and she and I were there with the boys. Bob hadn’t left to shower or check in at home or leave at all. A while after Chris was there, Brian said to Tony and Bob, “Let’s go for a walk.” Bob waved, like, Okay, go. “No, us,” said Brian. He meant the boys. “Come on,” he said and stood and Tony stood too but Bob didn’t. “Come on,” Brian said again and made this shooing motion at Bob. “You’re coming with us,” he said, and he looked at Bob who looked at him for a second then stood and then they went.

When Bob and Tony were in the hall, Brian turned back and touched my elbow and said, “We’re going out for a long one.” He told the nurse they were all going out and the nurse said that was good.

Then Chris and I were in the room with her.

We sat by the bed and held her hand. First one of us for a while and then the other. We’d change our seats to be the closer one, then pass her hand to the other so someone was always holding it.

After a while Chris said, “It’s getting cold,” and I said, “No, it’s not.” She gave me the hand and I said, “It’s not,” and then she said to me, “Honey.”

“It’s warm,” I said, and it was still warm, from where she had been holding it, but the places she hadn’t she put my other hand and then I could feel the rest was getting cold.

Chris put her hand to Julie’s face and said it was cooling, too. I put my hand on Julie’s cheek and held it there.

She was still breathing, we thought, and maybe there was a pulse. We didn’t want to look too close or stare like waiting for what but also we didn’t want to look away and then look back.

There wasn’t a movement or different breath or cry, there wasn’t a moment. There was only a while when her mouth wasn’t moving, the sheet above her not moving too, the gradual getting cold. I went to the nurse and he came and looked and felt then got out his stethoscope then stood for a minute then put it away and said, “You’ll want to tell him before he comes back in the room.”

“Okay,” I said and the nurse called down to Jeanine and said to phone us when Bob and the boys got onto the elevator.

He left us and we sat by the bed and waited.

When the phone rang I jumped and Chris answered it and I went to meet the elevator.

When the door slid open they saw me and didn’t say anything. They stood there until the door began closing then Brian stopped it with his hand and they got out.

“She’s gone,” I said. “I know,” Bob said, “I knew when I saw you there,” and we walked back to the room.

We waited in the hall while he went in, then Chris came out and we left him alone and went to the terrace to wait.

Outside it was a beautiful day, all sunny and warm and light. We stood outside in the beautiful day and waited for the widow.

REBECCA BROWN , a novelist, essayist, and Stranger Genius Award winner, first read this piece at the Humanities Washington dinner. She will be reading with Mary Ewald at New City Theater November 22–23 and 29–30, and will be presenting on monsters at Northwest Film Forum December 5–7. If you’ve never seen her speak before, go.

MARTIN SCHOELLER ’s large-scale photographic headshots offer detailed access to some of the most recognizable faces from cinema, the sports field, the political podium, and the arena of rock.

DON’T MISS THE FINAL STOP ON THE EXHIBIT’S WORLD TOUR.

SAVE MONEY. SAVE TIME. BUY ONLINE. EMPMUSEUM.ORG

STRANGER SUGGESTS

Bill Callahan

MUSIC

If I could, I would snuggle up in a sleeping bag made of Bill Callahan’s baritone, sepia-hued voice. I’ve never been one to fall particularly hard for folky American singer-songwriters with sadness in their hearts (and I’ll admit to being only an entry-level Smog listener—Smog being the name he performed under from 1990 to 2005), but Callahan’s newest album, Dream River, is hypnotizing. Something in the songs’ slow, friendly melancholy might induce smiling, foot-tapping, sobbing, heavy pondering, and/or the urge to take a lonesome road trip to the nearest sunset. (Neumos, 925 E Pike St, neumos.com, 8 pm, $20, 21+) EMILY NOKES

Dorothea Lasky BOOKS

Go Health Yourself

Dorothea Lasky delivers just about everything you need in a modern poet: She laughs easily and at inopportune times, she owns an impressive collection of interesting glasses, and her poetry is fucking incredible Lasky’s poems shift between funny, biting, and weird, but they always reveal something from deep inside her internal life. These personal admissions often expand to embrace the universal. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say I was Jesus or something,” Lasky admits in “I Like Weird Ass Hippies,” and if you said you didn’t feel that way, too, sometimes, you’d be lying. (ACT Theatre, 700 Union St, acttheatre.org, 7:30 pm, $15–$50) PAUL CONSTANT

Nine Inch Nails MUSIC

The bombastic industrial rock and abject, tortured persona of Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor helped a lot of young people find catharsis throughout the ’90s—or to revel in their own downward spirals. This millennium, Reznor has muted the overwrought anger and self-loathing and created some cerebral electronic music that proves his championing of Autechre wasn’t a pose. NIN’s first album in five years, Hesitation Marks, finds him mellowing into a nervy producer of white-knuckle techno rock. “Came Back Haunted,” indeed. (KeyArena, Seattle Center, keyarena.com, 8 pm, $65–$571, all ages) DAVE SEGAL

MUSIC Tonight’s party celebrates the arrival of what the GOP calls the “death panel,” but which others around the world recognize as universal health care. The organizations supporting the event include the SEIU (Service Employees International Union), the Washington Bus, Planned Parenthood Votes NW, and King County Public Health. The acts providing the music are Emerald City Soul Club and Hey Marseilles. And the purpose of it all is to inaugurate a campaign to enroll people in the new health-care system. Universal insurance and dancing are good for your body. (Chop Suey, 1325 E Madison St, strangertickets.com, 8 pm, $7, 21+) CHARLES MUDEDE

‘Punk in Africa’ FILM

This 2012 documentary chronicles a little-known chapter in the history of punk music—the southern African hardcore scene, which was banned and forced underground during the apartheid years. The extreme politics of South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe spawned rebellious youth and furious music that railed against institutional power, racism, and violence, including bands such as Wild Youth, the Impact, National Wake (the first racially integrated rock band in South Africa), the Geniuses, and others. Anarchy in the S-A! (Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave, nwfilmforum.org, 7 and 9 pm, $11, Nov 22–24) KELLY O

‘Blue Is the Warmest Color’

FILM

Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes (with the award explicitly and rightly split among director Abdellatif Kechiche and his two amazing lead actors) and subject of fiery post-Cannes hubbub (with director and actors feuding publicly over the film’s sexual and emotional explicitness), Blue Is the Warmest Color is a “first love” love story packed with so much life that the few iffy aesthetic choices become secondary concerns. Central to everything: the astonishing lead performance of Adèle Exarchopoulos, who opens herself to Kechiche’s point-blank camera fearlessly, from the first frame. (Harvard Exit, 807 E Roy St, see Movie Times: thestranger.com/film) DAVID SCHMADER

Rachel’s Ginger Beer

VHS Night: ‘Death Ring’

DELICIOUS Now that the weather has turned blustery and cold, you want to drink something warm. I get it. But fight that urge! I know it goes against every intuition you have right now, but get down to Rachel’s Ginger Beer in the Market and treat yourself to a frosty float or milkshake made with mouthpuckering cranberry ginger beer and Cupcake Royale ice cream. Don’t worry, the place is heated (and filled with warm candlelight), so you won’t shiver. Too cold for ice cream? Fine. They have hot toddies, too, wuss. (Rachel’s Ginger Beer, 1530 Post Alley, rachelsgingerbeer.com, 10 am–10 pm) MEGAN SELING

FILM Presented by Seattle filmmakers and C-grade VHS connoisseurs Megan Griffiths and Lacey Leavitt, Death Ring is the 1992 bomb starring the powerhouse trio of Norris, McQueen, and Swayze. Hilariously, this means Mike Norris (Chuck’s son), Chad McQueen (Steve’s son), and Don Swayze (Patrick’s brother), who cash in on their celebrity names in a ramshackle thriller featuring “action so intense that it often can’t even be shown on screen!” Bonus: After Death Ring, a second VHS treasure will screen, drawn from the vast GriffithsLeavitt library and chosen by audience vote. (SIFF Film Center, Seattle Center, siff.net, 7 pm, $7) DAVID SCHMADER

CHALLENGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE.

We all know that people look different. While these differences are socially and culturally real, contemporary scientific understanding of race and human variation is complex and may challenge how we think about it.

RACE: Are We So Different? builds understanding of what race is and is not, providing tools to recognize racial ideas and practices in contemporary life in the U.S.

In conjunction with this exhibit, the Seattle Race and Social Justice Initiative is offering free workshops for groups to expand their understanding of racial equity in the community. Learn more at seattle.gov/rsji

LOOSE LIPS

BY STRANGER ARTS GOSSIP SQUAD

THE HABIT LOVES THE ’80s “Look, up in the sky, it’s a bird,” “It’s a plane,” “It’s some clouds,” “It’s a zeppelin,” “It’s an associate’s degree.”

THEATER

Shooting from the Hip

The Habit’s Latest Sketch Comedy

BY BRENDAN KILEY

The core members of the Habit began writing comedy together back in 1995, when they were college classmates and roommates. At the time, their sketches, filled with cops and robots and astronauts, seemed born of long afternoons on the couch watching cable TV and passing a bong around. Since then, the group has taken years-long hiatuses and some of its members have made names for themselves in other projects (Stranger Genius Award–winner John Osebold, for example, with his performanceband “Awesome,” and theater impresario Mark Siano with his semi-ironic “soft-rock” comedy extravaganzas). But when the Habit reconvenes to write new material, it still feels like a hazy, mid-’90s TV dream.

REVIEW The Habit 13 Bathhouse Theater Through Dec 1

“It’s an associate’s degree” to “It’s a flock of seagulls.” One of them begins humming a song, which precipitates an argument about whether it was recorded by A Flock of Seagulls (’80s music reference—check). They all consult their smartphones but get lost in their screens, oblivious to the zombies that have begun staggering toward them from offstage. Disappearing down the rabbit hole of what happens on screens (movies, TV shows, phones) is the go-to well for Habit material. But after 18 years, the gag sometimes feels a little thin—as if the boys have trudged up and down the same muddy pop-culture field so many times, they’ve worn those pathways into a ditch. They still bring moments of delight, as when Osebold plays a “crazy” detective who “tortures” a suspect with kids’ games—wet willies, the old “got your nose” trick, playing “airplane” with a spoonful of ice cream. “You guys are the craziest cops I’ve ever seen, man!” the suspect squeals. “I’ll put mustard in my oatmeal,” Osebold snaps back. “I don’t give a fuck!”

BOOKS

Modern Romance

Rainbow Rowell Pisses Off Conservatives and Thrills Young Readers

BY PAUL CONSTANT

R• Cinematic goddess Parker Posey was spotted shopping at Elliott Bay Book Company on Sunday, November 17. She is reportedly somehow even hotter in real life. In less-hot celebrity-sighting news, Dale Chihuly was seen leaving an evening showing of Dallas Buyers Club at the Harvard Exit on the same day.

Habit sketches whiz by at the speed of commercials and still feature cops, robots, and astronauts, as well as a surprising number of ’80s music references (in this case, “The Final Countdown” and a number from The Little Mermaid). At their best, the sketches begin with those old tropes but disappear into a whirlpool of absurdity. In one scene toward the middle of their current show, three men walk past a despondent Aquaman who’s just been snubbed by Superman. (Pop icons—check.) Someone points to the ceiling and the three begin trading rapid-fire lines: “Look, up in the sky, it’s a bird,” “It’s a plane,” “It’s some clouds,” and so on, from “It’s a zeppelin” to

In another brief, shining sketch, a pompous producer (Osebold again) wanders across the stage, outlining his vision for a show while two assistants take notes. “Okay,” the producer says, taking a breath. “So we start with the opening number of all popular musicals produced at once, 300 dancer/singers use malfunctioning Shake Weights, ice-skaters on trampolines, naked butts slapped rhythmically, then the harp battle… Then the managing director asks for donations onstage, song about how theater is dying, theater dies, funeral scene, undead theater rises, the vampire kick line, 60 pairs of tap shoes on sale half-price…”

In moments like these, when they loosen the reins on their imagination and take on a fresh subject—not the tired absurdity of Hollywood formulas, but the absurdities of the live-theater industry they’ve actually been working in—the men of the Habit show they’ve still got it.

ainbow Rowell is having a hell of a year. The Nebraska author was banned from an appearance at the Anoka County Library in Minnesota because her young adult novel Eleanor & Park, which was published earlier this year, contains instances of the word “fuck.” It’s not just that the so-called Parents Action League got the library to pull Rowell’s speaker’s fee—Rowell told the Omaha World-Herald that she offered to do the event for free—but she was flatly told not to come.

REVIEW Eleanor & Park, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (St. Martin’s Griffin, $18.99)

The League went on to complain that the book was, according to the World-Herald’s Erin Grace, “‘pornographic,’ ‘sexually explicit,’ and too controversial for even a teenage audience.”

Of course, that kind of talk inspires people to really, really want to read the book.

Turns out, Eleanor & Park isn’t nearly as salacious as the Parents Action League would have you believe. It’s a fairly innocent romance, a story of a single year in the very first relationship between two Nebraskan high-school outcasts. In fact, Rowell’s writing could use a bit more Judy Blume–style oomph: Her novels suffer from the weird 21st-century American Puritanism that’s permeated popular culture, wherein it’s fine for characters to behave in a sexy manner and to drop the fuck-word with impunity, but actual scenes of actual human sex never actually happen.

If Rowell continues to accumulate eager teenage readers—more about them presently—she owes it to those kids to be earnest and honest about sexual matters. Wouldn’t any thinking American rather have children learn about sex from books than from movies? Didn’t Blume teach several generations to be more honest, more generous, and more intelligent about sex than ever? Maybe most importantly: Wouldn’t frank descriptions of what it’s like for a pair of kids to have sex for the first time really drive regressive pricks like the Parents Action League right up the fucking wall?

• The only Seattle artist anyone can remember being included in a Whitney Biennial was Wynne Greenwood in 2004, and she was in Olympia then and making work as Tracy + the Plastics. The Whitney’s 2014 biennial list was just announced and it includes HOWDOYOUSAYYAMINAFRICAN?, a collective that includes Seattle poet/ performance artist Christa Bell. Asked for details, Bell said it’s “an evolving collaboration of multidisciplinary artists of the African diaspora. Members of the collective have lived and worked together, in various iterations, over the last 20 years.” We will bring you more details as we learn them, including, naturally, instruction on how to say “yam” in African.

• During a tech rehearsal last week for The Hound of the Baskervilles at Seattle Rep, actor Connor Toms tripped and broke his foot while wooing onstage lover and real-life wife Hana Lass. Evidently, the train of a silk Victorian dress is quite slippery if you step on it in patent-leather dinner shoes. But Toms is already back onstage, according to a source with inside information: “He’s been acting on a broken foot and killing it.”

• You heard it here first: Velocity Dance Center’s 2014 artist in residence will be Jody Kuehner, better known as huge-haired, worship-worthy Cherdonna Shinatra. Kuehner’s skill set—she’s a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and performance artist—collides within Cherdonna as a one-of-a-kind spectacle, her physicality somewhere between showgirl and seizure sufferer There isn’t a critic at The Stranger whose mind hasn’t been blown by the shit Kuehner comes up with.

Setting that large and surly quibble aside, there’s a lot to love about Eleanor & Park. Everything about the burgeoning romance rings with the awkward and beautiful resonance of truth. Eleanor is a believable outcast, not a Hollywood-style beautiful quirky girl who just needs to take off her clunky glasses to reveal herself as prom queen. And her relationship with the similarly ignored Park begins believably: They read comic books

• Whenever David Sedaris goes on tour, he recommends a book by another author to his fans. At his Benaroya Hall reading last week, Sedaris recommended Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick. It’s a collection of interviews with North Koreans about how terrible North Korea is. Sedaris said one selling point for Nothing to Envy is that there is literally nothing you can do to help North Koreans in need, so you can read the book and then spend ridiculous amounts of money on frivolous pursuits rather than feel guilted into giving charitable donations or whatever. He says it would make a great Christmas gift.

together, forging chains of nerdy love. (The book is set in the 1980s, when nerds are still treated as pariahs if they’re spotted in public with Star Wars paraphernalia.) Those who were embarrassed by the treacly swooning of Twilight will find a lot to love here. Rowell doesn’t shy away from darkness. Eleanor is on the cusp of homelessness, and her mother is dating an abusive jackass. The secret that threads itself through the story eventually brings the whole romance crashing down as Eleanor’s situation becomes dire. This isn’t feel-good tragedy tourism; it’s honest and avoids pat conclusions, which is exactly what young adult fiction should be.

Puzzle Break

Starting November 22nd.

Puzzle Break is a new live-action puzzle game for up to 12 people, located in Capitol Hill. Reservations are required. For more information, go to: puzzlebreakseattle.com

RWETHINKCAPITOLHILLCOULDUSEMORE

owell’s newest novel, Fangirl, is about a young woman named Cather who heads to college with her cooler twin sister, only to ostracize herself from pretty much everyone. She’s afraid to ask where the dining hall is, so she makes do on protein bars, she worries about how her single dad is doing back at home, and she increasingly relies on the only real success she enjoys, as a popularbut-anonymous fan-fiction writer specializing in a Harry Potter–ish analogue. Cather struggles with authenticity as a writer whose most original creations use characters borrowed from another author. Mental illness, substance abuse, and, of course, the quest to find love are addressed along the way, with the same careful consideration that Rowell showed in Eleanor & Park

But maybe the most exciting thing about Fangirl is the reception it received. Earlier this fall, the book was chosen as the first selection in Tumblr’s Reblog Book Club program. Reading through reader responses on the central site, reblogbookclub.tumblr.com, demonstrates how Rowell inspires young readers. Book club members respond to Fangirl in the emotive language of social media (“OKAY. That’s just freaking adorable. Rainbow Rowell is so good at making me feel all giddy at little moments like these. I. CAN’T. EVEN. RIGHT. NOW.”) Sometimes, they react by uploading GIFs of Darth Vader, Ryan Gosling, and Benedict Cumberbatch acting out the emotions the book has inspired in them. They talk about fanfic, and whether it’s a legitimate art form. They post drawings of Fangirl’s characters. They interact with the author. They highlight their favorite quotes and take pictures of themselves drinking Cather’s favorite coffee drink. The blog goes on for 49 pages like that, full of creativity and criticism and conversations and outright fangirling. I’m not going to pretend this sort of reaction to and interaction with a text is new, but it is gloriously, proudly public. Compared to the small-minded, hateful actions of a handful of regressive jerks like the Parents Action League, the love shown by these readers for Rowell’s words feels joyous, like a happy ending.

THEATER

memories and influences can lead a person to do something that, from a distance, might seem insane.

Alana (Katie Driscoll) is a young Seattle woman with backcountry roots. She likes whiskey, trades playful insults over the phone with her brother in Tennessee, and hasn’t gotten around to telling her girlfriend, Mel (Megan Ahiers), that she’s a member of the NRA. Alana is a type—tough and impulsive, but also troubled and trying to hide it. Alana and Mel are planning to move in together, but Alana seems more agitated than excited. She grumbles about quitting her job and, for reasons that aren’t initially clear, tries to hide an impending visit from her beloved brother Saul (Daniel Wood). She gets even squirmier when Saul calls to tell her their long-lost uncle Hal (a grinning and creepy Gianni Truzzi) has come back home and has Alzheimer’s. “And you don’t think that changes anything?” Alana asks cryptically. “Do you want to back out?” Saul counters. “No,” she says.

REVIEW

The rest of Buckshot is a slowly widening crack in the door of Alana’s consciousness, allowing us to see bit by bit who Uncle Hal is, why his return and his Alzheimer’s matter, and what she and her brother have committed to that she might “back out” of. The script flips between Alana’s troubling and malleable childhood memories and her increasingly rocky day-to-day relationships with the people around her.

Directed by Peggy Gannon, the seven new actors in Buckshot give eager, sincere performances that seem, at times, like they’re still trying to get the feel of what it’s like to live in their characters’ skins. Driscoll and Wood as the tough-but-troubled siblings have the best chemistry onstage. (Even when they’re being affectionate, Driscoll and Ahiers as the lovers seem even more emotionally distant than the script calls for.) But Meaker’s play is a world premiere with a promising premise that, with a little tinkering, could become something even better.

An Exercise in Ambiguity

Buckshot Is an Unsettling Family Drama

BY BRENDAN KILEY

Buckshot, a new play by Courtney Meaker, is an exercise in prelude—it ends precisely where a news story, based on police reports and interviews with rattled neighbors, might begin. It is also an exercise in ambiguity, picking apart how years of

CIENNA MADRID

Sive’s Every Day Is Election Day : A Woman’s Guide to Winning Any Office, from the PTA to the White House (Chicago Review Press, $17.95) is practically worthless, in the same vein that Lean In was practically worthless. It basically consists of peppy self-help advice laced with personal anecdotes from successful women.

“The only limitations on you are the ones you impose,” Sive announces in one chapter. “Lead with your strength, even if it’s perceived negatively by some,” she instructs in another. Obviously, this isn’t particularly gendered advice for aspiring elected officials. Nor is it particularly illuminating. Even the gendered chapters, like “Men are your enemies (except when they’re your friends)” are pretty benign. These common-sense slogans could just as easily be applied to a lonely woman’s love life as running for office.

PREVIEW

Rebecca Sive

Wed Nov 20, Town Hall, 7:30 pm, $5

And, like every self-help book ever created, it contradicts itself to cover all its bases. “The key to winning an elected or appointed office isn’t staking out positions and advocating for them, regardless of the practical realities of getting those positions adopted,” Sive explains early on. This is practical advice (that I happen to disagree with, but whatever). Several chapters later, Sive doubles back to explain that “compromise and negotiation don’t work if your principles aren’t firm… it is your duty to lead with the strength of your convictions and your willingness to manage the effects of acting on them.” In other words, stand by your ideals but never stake out positions.

I don’t have a problem with self-help books. I’m sure they help some people. But here’s why the book fails its target audience: Any woman who’s considering a run for elected office—and will be considered a credible candidate—is doing so because she’s already part of the system she wishes to change. She has a platform. She has an audience. Basically, she already has the bones of a campaign, so a book on how to build those bones is moot. Think immigrant women running for office to give a voice to immigrant and refugee populations, or women running for school board because they oppose statewide testing programs, which are two types of candidates I’ve seen run for local and statewide office in the past year. For these women, who already have a stake in the game, explanations about how lady candidates need to attract supporters, or learn to be adept at fundraisers, or be prepared to fight on the campaign trail, or want it more badly than the competition are laughably remedial.

That said, this book is far from worthless. I’d simply argue that its audience is different. Younger. High school or college age—the kind of young women with passion and ideals but little to no practical experience funneling all that passion and energy into a political outlet. For this population, a literary cheerleading squad full of personal anecdotes and practical (albeit general) advice on how to find a cause you care about, and how to network, is invaluable. Reading stories from the lives of successful female politicians is truly inspiring. Since the 1960s, women have been told they can do whatever they want, but they haven’t been given the practical knowledge to back it up. This is a societal road map actually showing young women how they can achieve their goals in a culture that still views them as inferior, and for young, opinionated women who long to make a difference in the world, it’s long overdue.

DECEMBER 6 to 24

DECEMBER 6 to 24

Written by Barbara Robinson

Clutch Theatre

ART

Museums

FRYE ART MUSEUM

Franz von Stuck: The painter of the Frye’s popular painting Sin rose to prominence at the turn of the last century. He made his American debut at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and now comes his first comprehensive US exhibition, organized in conjunction with the Museum Villa Stuck. Through Feb 2. Jason Hirata: Optium LH-3m: In keeping with the Frye’s blending of contemporary with historical works, Seattle artist Jason Hirata comes into the galleries to present “new sculptural manifestations of his camera support modification videos installed in an optimized white environment.” Free. Reception Thurs Nov 21, 5-8 pm. Tues-Sun. Through Jan 5. 704 Terry Ave 622-9250.

HENRY ART GALLERY

of things that no longer are what they were once made to be. Free. Reception Fri Nov 22, 6-8 pm. Nov 22- Jan 10. 1501 10th Ave E, 526-2787.

GREG KUCERA GALLERY Miles Cleveland Goodwin : Dreary, macabre paintings of bleak winter scenes. Gregory Blackstock: Homemade Sheet Music Re-arrangements : Encyclopedic drawn renditions of sheet music and corresponding illustrations from this autistic artistic savant. Free. Reception Thurs Dec 5, 6-8 pm. Tues-Sat. Through Dec 21. 212 Third Ave S, 624-0770.

Events

HOLIDAY ART SALE

A weeklong sale with a kickoff party Fri Nov 22, 6-9 pm. Pratt Fine Arts Center, 1902 S Main St, 328-2200. www.pratt.org. $50 opening party. Nov 22-30.

Books 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3333. thirdplacebooks. com. Free. 7 pm.

ANN PATCHETT

The author of fun novels like Bel Canto and The Magician’s Assistant reads from her new memoir, This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage. She will appear in conversation with local library hero Nancy Pearl. Expect some conversation about Patchett’s recent life as a bookstore owner (she opened a new bookstore called Parnassus Books in Nashville a couple years back). Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, 652-4255. townhallseattle.org. $5. 7:30 pm.

FAMILY AFFAIR

David Hartt: Stray Light: The photographer David Hartt got inside the iconic 1971 headquarters of Johnson Publishing in Chicago—the launching pad for Jet and Ebony magazines— right before the building was sold. The photographs, pictures, and sculptures he created are deadpan memorial documents of a specific time of pride and purpose. Through Jan 5. Haegue Yang: Anachronistic Layers of Dispersion: South Korean–born artist Haegue Yang grew up in an environment where you closed the blinds when company came over, just in case the government was watching. Now, she makes installations entirely out of artfully arranged, dangling Venetian blinds. They’re swaying constellations of pretty surveillance. Through Jan 9. Sol Hashemi: Software Update/ System Build : In Software Updates Hashemi will make a series of alterations to his recent work. When System Build rolls around, the artist will begin construction of a “custom modded personal computer designed to power a 3D laser scanner used to create new work.” Through Dec 8. Jason Dodge’s sculptures are stories. They are: what’s left after 19 farm animals spend time in the galleries, pillows slept on only by ornithologists, pillows slept on only by acrobats, linens from a local hotel linen service changed weekly, and rolls of newsprint that will become actual pages of the Seattle Times during the run of the exhibition. $10 suggested. Wed-Sun. Through Jan 26. 4100 15th Ave NE 543-2280.

SPACE WEATHER LISTENING BOOTH An immersive, performative piece by Nat Evans and John Teske that involves digital projections as well as actual human improvised performance. Inspired by the Aurora Borealis. Interstitial Theatre, 2231 First Ave. Free. Nov 22 at 6 pm. VIDEO/YOGA

Doing yoga with a bunch of people while surrounded by calming video projections? At the Henry Art Gallery at 12:30 pm Thurs Nov 21; at Interstitial Theatre 7 pm Tues Nov 26. www.storefrontsseattle.wordpress.com. $15-$40.

visualart@thestranger.com

READINGS

Wed 11/20

WILL ALLEN

The Good Food Revolution is a book about urban and sustainable farming. It might even contain a little bit of information about sustainable urban farming. Dare to dream! Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave, 386-4636. spl.org. Free. 6 pm.

JUNG CHANG

DOROTHEA LASKY See Stranger Suggests, page 19. ACT Theatre, 700 E Union St, 292-7660. www.acttheatre. org. $15. 7:30 pm. URI GNEEZY Uri Gneezy, who certainly wins this week’s Best Name Award, reads from Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life which looks at economics in a quirky-but-non- Freakonomics sort of way. Town Hall 1119 Eighth Ave, 652-4255. townhallseattle.org. $5. 7:30 pm.

Fri 11/22

DANIEL MENAKER The New Yorker editor reads from his memoir, titled My Mistake. That’s a pretty good title for a memoir, actually. Steve Martin says it’s funny. Elliott Bay Book Company , 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600. elliottbaybook.com. Free. 7 pm.

Sat 11/23

EMINE FETVACI The professor of Islamic Art at Boston University will give a talk titled “History and Empire: A Comparative Look at Ottoman, Safavid Persian and Mughal Illustrated Manuscripts.” Seattle Asian Art Museum, 1400 E Prospect St, 654-3100. www. seattleartmuseum.org/visit/visitSAAM.asp. $10. 9:30 am.

Mon 11/25

A monthly cabaret, hosted by Jennifer Jasper ( I Can Hear You... But I’m Not Listening ), in which guest artists “will be sharing their sick, hilarious, and ultimately relatable familial skeletons.” Rendezvous, 2320 Second Ave, 441-5823. rendezvousseattle.com. $10. Every third Wed at 7:30 pm. FLOYD COLLINS A musical by Tina Landau and Adam Guettel about the dramatic demise of a cave explorer in 1925. STAGEright Theatre at Hugo House 1634 11th Ave, 322-7030. brownpapertickets. com. $15-$20. Mon at 7:30 pm, Thurs-Sat at 7:30 pm. Through Nov 23. THE HABIT 13

See review, page 21. Bathhouse Theater 7312 W Green Lake Dr N, 524-1300. facebook.com/ TheHabitComedy. $17. Fri-Sun at 8 pm. Through Dec 1. HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES Sherlock Holmes attempts to outwit a large dog in this most famous of Conan Doyle stories, adapted for the stage by David Pichette and R. Hamilton Wright. Seattle Repertory Theatre 155 Mercer St, Seattle Center, 443-2222. seattlerep.org. $12-$60. Starting Nov 15. Tues-Thurs at 7:30 pm, Fri-Sat at 8 pm, Sun at 2 and 7:30 pm. Through Dec 15.

JESUS’ SON

SEATTLE ART MUSEUM

BARBARA MCCANN McCann’s Complete Our Streets is about the quest to make streets safe for bikes and public transit. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, 652-4255. townhallseattle.org. $5. 7:30 pm.

Tues 11/26

JANE URQUHART

You probably know Chang from her memoir Wild Swans or her biography of Mao. Her newest book sounds interesting. Here’s the title: Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China. See? Interesting! Seattle Asian Art Museum, 1400 E Prospect St, 624-6600. www.seattleartmuseum.org/visit/visitSAAM.asp. Free with admission. 7 pm. REBECCA SIVE See review, page 22. Town Hall , 1119 Eighth Ave, 6524255. townhallseattle.org. $5. 7:30 pm.

Peru: Kingdoms of the Sun and Moon: The museum turns its focus southward to Peru this season, with a great big sparkling exhibition of rarely seen sculpture, painting, and textiles surveying 3,000 years of patrimony, from the Incas to the viceroys and the saints. $20. Through Jan 5. Robert Davidson: Abstract Impulse : SAM and the National Museum of the American Indian in New York co-organized this first major US exhibition of Haida artist Robert Davidson, who’s been pivotal in Northwest Coast art since 1969, when he erected the first totem pole in his ancestral Massett village since the 1880s. $15 suggested. WedSun. Through Feb 16. 1300 First Ave, 625-8900.

Gallery

Openings

THE BELLTOWN COLLECTIVE Interstitial Theatre’s Juried Show: The three hardworking curators of this cavernous building temporarily devoted to new media have chosen a group of space-based pieces (read: not just videos on monitors) for a big group exhibition. Free. SatSun. Through Dec 20. 2231 First Ave

GAGE ACADEMY OF ART

//SIGHTLINES: Five outstanding Seattle artists—Thuy-Van Vu, Iole Alessandrini, (Stranger Genius Award winner) Rodrigo Valenzuela, Whiting Tennis, and Allyce Wood—respond to the recent BUSTER SIMPSON // SURVEYOR exhibition at the Frye, focusing on the buildup of stuff. Rubble, garbage, pieces

Thurs 11/21

JEFF KINNEY

The obscenely popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid author will delight you, especially if you are a child. Third Place Books , 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3333. thirdplacebooks.com. Free with book purchase. 8 am.

PATRICIA WELLS

The French Kitchen Cookbook author talks about what she knows. Admission price reportedly includes breakfast and coffee. The Book Larder, 4252 Fremont Ave N. www.booklarder. com. $10. 10 am.

PAVEL CURTIS

This is a talk titled “Mechanical Puzzle Design as a Man-Machine Collaboration.” This is the kind of event you’ll only find at Ada’s Technical Books. Ada’s Technical Books , 425 15th Ave E, 322-1058. seattletechnicalbooks.com. free. 3 pm.

ELISSA WASHUTA

Washuta is a local author who has one memoir coming out next year and is already working on the memoir after that. Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave, 3227030. hugohouse.org. Free. 7 pm.

TIM EGAN

Egan’s most recent book is Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis, but he’s also a frequent contributor to the New York Times and his essays there are excellent, too. Third Place

The Canadian poet and novelist reads from her newest book, a novel titled Sanctuary Line Elliott Bay Book Company 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600. elliottbaybook.com. Free. 7 pm. readings@thestranger.com

THEATER

Opening and Current Runs

25 SAINTS

“Joshua Rollins’s new-ish play begins with a bang as four people storm into a run-down meth-making shack: two young men carrying a wounded sheriff’s deputy and a screaming young woman, all of them covered in blood. After the young drug-cookers beat the deputy unconscious, they have to figure out what to do and, in the process, they tell us about who they are and how they got into this mess.” (Brendan Kiley) ACT Theatre, 700 E Union St, 2927676. acttheatre.org. $25-$30. Thurs-Sun at various times, see website for details. Through Nov 23.

BUCKSHOT See review, page 22. Macha Monkey at Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center, 201 Mercer St. machamonkey.org. $18-$20. Thurs-Sat at 8 pm. Through Nov 23.

CLARA

This play is based on the life of Clara Schumann, one of the most virtuosic pianists of the Romantic era, and the wife of the troubled composer Robert Schumann. Eclectic Theater 1214 10th Ave, 679-3271. eclectictheatercompany.org. $12-$25. Thurs-Sat at 8 pm, Sunday at 2 pm. Through Nov 24.

“Junkie writers—or at least those who write openly about being junkies—tend to share a particular sense of humor. Early Burroughs, Lou Reed, Denis Johnson, and the rest tell their harrowing stories with a flatness, a deadpan way of revealing details that puts the mundane (the color of a car’s upholstery, for example) on the same emotional plane as the extraordinary (the man bleeding to death in the backseat). That staunch refusal to let any fact or emotion rise above any other, that calm insensitivity, creates an unnerving kind of comedy. For the most part, Book-It’s stage adaptation of Jesus’ Son —Johnson’s 1992 collection of quasi-autobiographical fragments—hits that chord precisely. The eight-person cast, directed by Josh Aaseng, plays this sad parade of losers with glimmers of human decency, if faint ones, in their criminally negligent hearts.” (Brendan Kiley) West of Lenin 203 N 36th St, 216-0833. book-it.org. $23-$38. Wed-Sat at 7:30 pm. Through Nov 24. LES MISÉRABLES An astute wordsmith will likely notice that the title of this popular musical is an anagram for “less miserable,” which is all the good, poor people of France have ever wanted to be. Village Theatre, 303 Front St N, Issaquah, 392-2202. villagetheatre.org. $39-$54. Starting Nov 7. Wed-Thurs at 7:30 pm, Fri at 8 pm, Sat at 2 and 8 pm, Sun at 2 and 7 pm. Through Jan 5. THE MODERN AMERICAN CHICKEN Cafe Nordo revives its original 2009 meta-dinner-theater production: a five-course tragicomedy about the life and death of a chicken, from egg to chick to bloody mess to your plate. Washington Hall , 153 14th Ave. cafenordo.com. $65-$90. Thurs at 7 pm, Fri-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 7 pm. Through Nov 24.

Dance

SHOWING OUT: CONTEMPORARY BLACK DANCE

Curated by Donald Byrd, with choreography by Sadiqua Iman, Markeith Wiley, Alex Crozier, and others. Presented by the Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas. Spectrum Studio Theater, 800 Lake Washington Blvd, 323-4032. cdforum.org. $5-$10. Sat Nov 23 at 6 and 8:30 pm.

theater@thestranger.com

Doe Bay Fest –Tickets Scarce

TAVI GEVINSON’S DREAMY YEARBOOK FASHIONS

The editor, writer, reader of Sassy magazine, performer, wonder-youngster, and deeply charming weirdo Tavi Gevinson recently appeared at the Vera Project to push her newest project, Rookie Yearbook Two. It’s easy to see what’s so swell about the book. A fashion-soaked anthology of Gevinson’s online magazine, it presents the sum of teenage girlhood in the form of collages, handwritten song lists, indiecelebrity stills, sticker sheets, and dreamy illustrations involving dolls and gems and trinkets and mermaids. There are essays, too—most of them vastly mesmerizing and loaded with details recalling high school’s brutal and complicated landscape: the relationship melodramas, the self-exile, the general urgent-ness, the tangible frustrations, the hokey therapy sessions with guidance counselors.

“She… had me decorate T-shirts with puffy paint. Seriously,” writes one girl in “Secret Wounds.”

Appearing every few pages, fashion spreads show ensembles with splashy prints and colors all jangled together, and the images have a pleasantly blurry, makeshift feeling. Though Gevinson established her identity as a blogger of fashion, her presence in its haute realms left her feeling “caught up and anxious,” she said in Emma Bazilian’s AdWeek interview, so now, Gevinson’s models wear clothes and objects that are similarly inventive but far more accessible. Watch for translucent skirts layered over shimmering underclothes, Garfield the Cat graphic tees, sequined unibrows, teeny daisies threaded through dental braces, rococo-inspired towers of fake pink hair, dried-starfish forehead medallions, and stuffed-animal eyeballs transformed into jean-jacket cuff buttons. (Worth noting: Seattle’s very own Lucky Vintage in the University District supplied the looks for Cosmic Dancer, a vaudeville-themed spread with elegant floor-length gowns, ballet slippers, paper dolphins, and curtsies everywhere. Still, One, Two, Something’s Coming for You wins. It’s got floating candy corn and a broccoli halo.)

To express a certain delicately ravaged glamour, Gevinson positions her models against low-rent backdrops. There are gasstation snack aisles, boarded-up houses, and working-class porches crammed with plastic flowers. Meanwhile, flipping through, pictures of Gevinson’s “adventurous, puzzling women” keep coming at you: the cloak-wearing, dove-holding Stevie Nicks; Winona Ryder at the height of her ’90s-hot-shit-ness; the blood-draped Sissy Spacek from Carrie; and The Virgin Suicides’ Lisbon sisters, featuring the fashion favorite Lux, who wrote the name Kevin in purple Magic Marker all over her bras and panties.

CHOW

Good-Bye, Seattle

I Will Miss You and Your Most Delicious Food

BY MEGAN SELING

I’m leaving. In just a few days, in fact! When I wake up on December 4, I will wake up as a Nashvillian. I’ve lived in the Northwest my whole life, I’ve lived in Seattle proper for more

than a decade, and I’ve worked at The Stranger since before I could legally go to the Cha Cha when it was on Pine Street. I started here on my 20th birthday, and I’m 33 now. I am freaking the fuck out. I’ve survived nine music editors; I was here before Slog was a thing. I can’t remember when I wasn’t referred to as “Megan Seling from The Stranger,” and I have no idea what it feels like to not get 8,000 e-mails a day from bands, publicists, and restaurants that want press, plus weirdos who want to scream at me for dissing the Red Hot Chili Peppers. (THEY’RE TERRIBLE, GET OVER IT.)

But change is good. It’s time for something new. My husband grew up in Nashville, I have been to Nashville a dozen times, and I can confidently say that it’s an awesome city. It’s not Seattle, but it’s great. I’m going to love it there. And I will say this: When it comes to food—sharpen your pitchforks—Nashville has better chocolate (Olive & Sinclair, y’all!) and more innovative coffee options (to say nothing of having a hockey team). I had a salt-and-black-pepper latte at Hot & Cold in Hillsboro that redefined all the expectations I’d ever had of my coffee drinks. And have

unimpressive as the place itself—sandwiches come with your choice of meats and cheeses, shredded iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, sprouts, onions, pickles, avocado spread, and mayonnaise. Pretty standard, right? No. Something happens in the way they make it, in the way the ratio of ingredients combine—it’s so much more flavorful than any other sub sandwich I’ve ever had. I’ve rented a car just to go to MSM. I’ve waited for more than an hour to get a sandwich, without regretting a single second. Speaking of sandwiches, there’s no Paseo in Nashville. There are no Paseo black beans, there are no stubby pieces of corn on the cob slathered in butter and herbs, there’s no Paseo Tofu con Gusto covered in garlic and whatever that sweet and tangy red sauce is. I will PayPal you $50 a month to fetch and send me a Tofu Delight with two stars and a side of rice and beans. Deal? Deal! I’m kidding. (Kind of. Email me and we’ll work something out.)

When you send the sandwich, throw in a Rachel’s Ginger Beer, too, because the locally made, preservative-free soda has to be kept refrigerated, so I can’t very well just buy

Sharpen your pitchforks: Nashville has better chocolate (Olive & Sinclair, y’all!) and more innovative coffee.

a case and take it with me. Sigh.

Also, does Nashville put cream cheese on their hot dogs? What if I go get a hot dog and they don’t have cream cheese? Can you even eat a hot dog without cream cheese?

And let’s talk about pho for a second. According to the almost-never-helpful Yelp, there are 20 places to get pho in Nashville, but none of them are Than Brothers, and none of them say anything about a free cream puff.

But that’s not all! I will also miss, dearly: La Isla’s Pasteleon. It’s pretty much lasagna made with thin slices of sweet plantains instead of noodles, and my husband and I love it so much that we served it for dinner at our wedding.

Caffe Ladro’s Vegan Oat Bar. It’s a giant rhubarb-filled square of oatmeal crumble, and it’s the best.

Zayda Buddy’s Breakfast Pizza. Scrambled eggs, spinach, Mama Lil’s peppers, cheese, and tater tots on a thin, crispy pizza crust. IT IS THE FOOD OF HEROES.

you ever had a Loveless Cafe biscuit? You guys! THEY ARE MIRACULOUS LITTLE CARB CLOUDS. I will send you some.

Nashville also has Las Paletas (avocado popsicles worth moving 2,000 miles for), the Wild Cow (incredible vegan food in the South? Yes!), and, of course, Noshville. Who doesn’t want to eat at an authentic New York delicatessen–style restaurant called Noshville? They have free all-you-can-eat pickles and lemon meringue pies that are bigger than your head!

I digress. I will have more than enough time to bask in all of Nashville’s culinary offerings soon enough, so with my last weeks in the region I’ve called home for more than 30 years, I’ve been doing my damnedest to get one final dose of all my favorite NW things, including favorite foods.

I’m absolutely certain I will not find a Nashvillian counterpart to Tacoma’s MSM Deli. It looks like an unassuming mini-mart, stocked with beer, soda, chips, and cigarettes, but behind that counter they make the best sub sandwich you’ll ever eat. The bread is chewy and soft—the perfect texture, really. On paper (screen?), the rest of the sandwich sounds as

Cupcake Royale’s Deathcake. I guess their annual dose of death by chocolate is shippable, but I won’t be able to get it with a scoop of their salted caramel ice cream! WAAAAAH.

Poppy’s Dessert Thali. More than just the thali itself—which is always amazing, go get it and share with your favorite person!—I will miss the little “nutter butter” squares that are one of the most delightfully textured things I have ever put into my mouth. The dense, cookielike bottom is crispy like a Butterfinger, and it’s coated with a generous layer of caramel that’s been cooked down to near burning then sweetened back up with white chocolate. Tip: You can buy them without the thali for $1—it’s the best way to spend a buck (or 20) in Seattle.

Full Tilt’s Ice Cream and Pinball. I did a search for pinball in Nashville, and the internet recommended I go to either a bowling alley or Coyote Ugly. There’s no pinball–ice cream hybrid, there’s no Shorty’s, there’s no Narwhal, there’s no Add-a-Ball or John John’s Game Room. Has Nashville even heard of pinball? What am I doing?!

I don’t care how good the chocolate is. I’m gonna miss the shit out of you, Seattle.

CRY with us about Megan’s departure at THESTRANGER.COM/CHOW

DRIKNING WITH CHARLSE MUDEDE

BY CHARLES MUDEDE

WHAT THE FURNITURE SAYS AT TRIUMPH BAR

The night I visited Triumph Bar in Lower Queen Anne, the traffic on Denny Way was more awful than its usual awful. Cars snailed between lights. You could not make a left or right and break the spell of the slowness. All you could do was feel your short life bleeding lots of time into the red stream of a long jam.

“Tonight is bad for driving up here,” said the friendly bartender at Triumph, soon after I settled down and released from my nerves a hot blast of tension.

“Ben Harper is playing at McCaw Hall and Selena Gomez at KeyArena. That’s a double whammy for Denny.”

He was pouring a glass of house wine. I was looking at the menu, and behind me were tall windows and a number of tables with 90-degree-angle banquettes that a friend of mine really dislikes (“They are designed for robot butts”). I did not like the

furniture because of what it directly said to me when I walked into the place: “Sit here and spend lots of money.” I chose the bar because its eyes were not so fixed on my wallet. At happy hour, the small plates go for about $5, the wine $6, and most of the items on the main menu ask for just below or just above $14.

Owned by two brothers who are both sommeliers, Jim and Brandon Marsh, Triumph Bar is, in essence, a wine bar. It has a huge and mostly Italian wine list—30 glass pours, more than 300 bottles, and so on. The brothers, however, do not describe their place as a wine bar; they instead want people to see it as a well-rounded affair of wines, cured meats, many cheeses, small plates, and not-so-small plates. (The food here, by the way, met my decent standards, and I especially loved the fried oysters.) But, really, why not call this place a wine bar? Because, like those tables next to the windows, the name “wine bar” always says: “Sit here and spend lots of money.”

Lastly, the most special thing about the Triumph Bar—and it is something that’s only visible from the tables by the windows—is the Space Needle rising behind its space-age sign, which hangs outside and above the sidewalk.

Chow Events

and chocolate custard with cocoa nibs (“YUM!” they say; agreed). Book and wine included. Boat Street Cafe, 3131 Western Ave, 632-4602. boatstreetcafe.com. $100. Wed Nov 20 at 6 pm.

Thurs 11/21

BEAUJOLAIS

NOUVEAU AT MARCHÉ

Marche’s beaujolais nouveau fete includes live music, porchetta, and a reportedly very charmingsommelier. Marché, 1600 Post Alley, 728-2800. marcheseattle.com.

SOPHISTICATED PEEPS AT VIF

Lauren Feldman and Shawn Mead Owners, Vif 4401 Fremont Ave, 557-7357

Lauren Feldman and Shawn Mead started thinking about a business like Vif, their new “community-minded” cafe and wine shop in Fremont, when they became friends working at Campagne in the ’90s. In the past decade, they’ve had many adventures—Shawn became the national sales representative for a wine importer called Louis/Dressner Selections in New York, and Lauren worked as a personal chef for a count and countess who owned a tablecloth given to them by Mussolini. Reunited, they opened Vif in a former Herfy’s with huge wraparound windows that Lauren calls “their fishbowl.”

When I stopped by, Shawn and Lauren were busily preparing for one of their regular collaborative pop-ups, a fried oyster dinner with the Walrus and the Carpenter. Vif sells wine by the bottle and by the glass, and offers a rotating selection of soups and small plates. They make their own shrubs, which are fruit vinegars that get mixed with soda, and—Nutella addicts will be thrilled to hear—their own dark chocolate hazelnut spread. Lauren was excited about their winter menu’s chicken salad tartine, because she plans to serve stock made from the chicken carcasses—possibly by the glass. “We have stuff that hearkens to what you would eat at home,” said Shawn. “You don’t feel like you’re killing yourself with weird fat.” I tried one of Vif’s honey marshmallows. Dipped in dark chocolate and dusted with orange sugar, it was like a sophisticated marshmallow Peep. SARAH GALVIN

NOUVEAU AT BASTILLE French wine nerds, rejoice! Bastille’s beaujolais nouveau celebration goes beyond the traditional nouveau into other offerings of the appellation, with tastes from Cru Beaujolais and “outstanding natural wine producers” the Gang of Four. Bastille Cafe Bar, 5307 Ballard Ave NW, 453-5014. bastilleseattle. com.

FÊTE DU BEAUJOLAIS

NOUVEAU

Woah! The beaujolais nouveau has arrived! For a very low price, you will be able to drink at Le Pichet.

Drink French wine is a delight, then you should go! No reservations, free admission, and the music Djangomatics. Chin!

[This entry written in French, translated by Google.] Le Pichet , 1933 First Ave, 2561499. lepichetseattle.com.

HYP HAPPY HOUR

Habitat Young Professionals (affiliated with Habitat for Humanity) invites you to their monthly happy hour, to which you should bring nonperishable food items and likenew coats for YouthCare and the Federal Way Food Bank. Capitol Cider is providing free snacks, which is nice, so be an elf, yourself—just RSVP on Facebook. Capitol Cider , 818 E Pike St, 397-3564. facebook.com/ events/248067882017784. 6-8 pm.

MUSTACHE BASH

BEAUJOLAIS NOUVEAU FESTIVAL

Another Beaujolais nouveau event—’tis the season. This is the fancy one sponsored by the French American Chamber of Commerce at the Columbia Tower Club. Columbia Tower Club , 701 Fifth Avenue. faccpnw.org. $50-$125. 7 pm.

Sat 11/23

EAT FOR EQUITY

Nonprofit Eat for Equity helps fund other nonprofits in Seattle by throwing community feasts. This month, they’re raising money to scale up their kitchen gear with a dinner, the band Peckin’ Out Dough, and square dancing. RSVP to seattle@ eatforequity.org. PRAG House on Capitol Hill . eatforequity.org. $15-$20.

CARAMELMAKING CLASS

Learn “the old-world techniques used to make Hot Cakes’ dark, smoky, true caramel sauce,” plus how to jar it and how to make caramel chews, from the great Autumn Martin in this two-hour, $75 class. Hot Cakes Molten Chocolate Cakery, 5427 Ballard Ave NW, 4203431. getyourhotcakes. com. $75. Noon-2 pm.

Sun 11/24

ETHAN STOWELL’S MACARONI AND CHEESE COOK-OFF

Pyramid Alehouse teams up with Pints for Prostates to celebrate Movember, the mustache-growingfundraising-thing for men’s health awareness and research. Tonight: live music, mustache competitions, beer/food specials, and a raffle with a grand prize of a beer-tasting trip to Germany. Pyramid Alehouse , 1201 First Ave S, (206) 682-3377. pyramidbrew.com. 6-9 pm.

PATRICIA WELLS AT THE CORSON BUILDING

The great Corson Building welcomes the great Patricia Wells (see previous page) over a multi-course, family-style, Parisian/Provençal dinner. Book and wine included. The Corson Building , 5609 Corson Ave S, 7623330. thecorsonbuilding. com. $100. 6:30 pm.

Fri 11/22

BACON HAPPY HOUR

More than a dozen bacony small plates, plus three bacon-containing desserts, AND half-a-dozen bacon-related drinks, with everything under $10. Check out the (crazy) full menu at the website. Reservations recommended. Starred for serious bacon commitment. Local 360 , 2234 First Ave, 441-9360. local360. org. 3-5:45 pm.

Ethan Stowell, the man behind a bunch of restaurants (you know), hosts a charity cook-off in which you get to try 117-ish kinds of macaroni and cheese made by pro chefs and notable amateurs, plus lots of beer. Proceeds benefit the Fetal Hope Foundation. (Note: We previously listed this event for Nov. 17; it is, in fact, tonight. Apologies!) Tavolata , 2323 Second Ave, 838-8008. ethanstowellrestaurants.com. $50. 6 pm.

Mon 11/25

MAC & CHEESE MONDAY Comfort yourself on Monday night with a fullsize serving of macaroni and cheese at Tommy Gun for just $3. (Also, drinks.) Tommy Gun , 1703 E Olive Way. tommygunseattle.com. $3.

Ongoing

DINE AROUND SEATTLE

Sundays through Thursdays all this month, it’s $30 prix-fixe dinner (and some $15 prix-fixe lunches) at more than 40 local restaurants... you know the drill. Dine-arounders can text a donation to the Rainier Valley Food Bank or other causes, which is nice. Various locations dinearoundseattle.org. $30/$15. Through Nov 28.

MEANS WE RECOMMEND IT. SEND EVENT INFO TO: chow@thestranger.com

MUSIC

Of Autumn Leaves and 206 Beats

A Survey of New Local Hiphop EPs and LPs

BY CHARLES MUDEDE

The leaves are falling, the leaves are red and gold, the leaves drift by my window. The days are short, the clouds are low, the mornings are cold. It is, in short, the middle of fall, and once

again I find myself surrounded by not only beautifully dead leaves but also new 206 hiphop LPs and EPs. Some are very good, some are just good, some are bad, and some are very bad. The ones below are either very good or just good, and are also ordered from top to bottom, from best to next best. And why not review the bad ones? To use the words of Too Short: “Life is too short, you will agree.”

High & Mighty by Nacho Picasso

Nacho Picasso is currently the future of local hiphop. If he were ever to leave this old sad town, he would take this future with him. His new album is this writing on the wall: I’m the Future of 206 Hiphop. From the first track (the gorgeously nocturnal “Crime Waves”) to the last (the wonderfully demented “Sounds like the outro”), Picasso does not let you forget for even a minute that wherever he is, the future of the Seatown sound is.

Lyrically, Picasso has the remarkable ability to be surreal without being arty or enigmatic. There is a good bit of Mau (the rapper for the forgotten or virtually unknown Bristol group Earthling) in this style, which is vivid and intoxicating, but with none of the verbal gymnastics and linguistic contrivances. Mau put a lot of intellectual effort into his raps; Picasso does not. Picasso does not want to be a heady spitter, but instead to work through your system slowly and surely like a drug that, rhyme by rhyme, moment by moment, breath by breath, opens your darkest dreams. He also has the cool to reference pop-culture figures who are way below the

at Chop Suey. At one point late in the show, hiphop legend KRS-One jumped on the stage and took command of the mic. This was probably the most important (or most defining) moment of RA Scion’s career, because it made clear to all where he was coming from (a branch of hiphop initiated by KRS-One’s track “My Philosophy”) and where he was going (the point where rap and philosophy became one and the same thing). On his new and second LP of the year, The Sickle & the Sword, RA Scion joins forces with Rodney Hazard, a producer based in New York City, to create his most elaborate and bold philosophical work to date. RA raps about being in time, being in space, being human, being in the face of death, being with others, being a rapper, as Rodney Hazard provides the dreamiest beats imaginable. The record is very strong and fascinating, though one or two of its tracks overflow with a bubbly abundance of b-boy metaphysics and oneiric beats. But there are several masterpieces on The Sickle & the Sword. Check out the galactic “OurSpace,” which features the young and rising Romaro Franceswa, and the hauntingly spare “Hungry Like,” which features Hazard on the mic, and the dazzlingly dubby “Bloodletter,” which has RA Scion philosophizing to a wonderful whirling void of ghostly sounds. One hopes that this record is the beginning of a long and deep collaboration between two ambitious and fearless hiphop headz.

Zenith by Grayskul

WHAT'S CRAPPENING?

BY

• Megan Seling—cupcake genius, hockey fanatic, pop-punk expert, and all-around amazing person—is leaving The Stranger after 13 years of awesomeness and moving to Nashville. Oh, how we will miss her!

• While you probably know her music writing, Megan Seling has also been fucking awesome at covering the Seattle sugar beat. In The Stranger’s chow section, she’s written hilarious, informative, poignant pieces about our city’s insane proliferation of cupcakes, what our state candy should be (hint: NOT Aplets & Cotlets), the greatness of milkshakes, and much, much more. She also wrote a brilliant cookbook of things-baked-inside-other-things (see bakeitinacake.com). Her farewell to Seattle food is on page 27. (Cry!)

• Speaking of baking and crying, one of our all-time favorite Megan Seling pieces was “The Long Winter,” a riveting piece about the time she attempted to bake 106 different kinds of Martha Stewart holiday cookies in two months.

• Megan Seling is also a skilled reviewer of children’s movies! We love her ability to hilariously call out the bullshit that is shown to kids, while helpfully noting the films that are appropriate for “7-year-olds with the memory of a goldfish.”

general radar—in “Sounds like the intro,” he names Jennifer Tilly (an actress and professional poker player who came briefly into fame in the mid-1990s as the ultimate noir black widow in the Wachowskis’ Bound) and Erik Estrada (the star of the bad 1970s TV show CHiPs).

Beatwise, though the record has several producers, all of them conform to Picasso’s dark vision and mode—a mode that is only really broken by one track, the pornographic “Duck Tales.” Indeed, the tracks produced by Vitamin D and Jake One (D’s “Nacho the Ruler” and One’s “Too Much”), two very distinct and accomplished veterans of the scene, do not sound anything like Vitamin D and Jake One. They sound instead like all the other producers on this slow-burning and lowgrinding neo-electro record.

Wherever Nacho

Picasso is, the future of the Seatown sound is.

Altogether, High & Mighty represents another kind of Seattle. It is still a simple city, but it’s also a very sinful city, a city haunted by hedonists, devoured by black narcissists and people who, like vampires or Whodini’s freaks, sleep during the day and come out only at night. The world is yours, Nacho Picasso. Nacho Picasso plays the Crocodile on Friday, November 29.

The Sickle

I want to first think about One. Released in 2001, it’s Oldominion’s first album, and it stands in my top five local hiphop albums ever. One was to Seattle what Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) was to New York City. Both albums announced the arrival of something truly new, both had a defined aesthetic and theme (One drew from horror cinema, Enter from kung-fu flicks), both were not made by crews or posses, but by whole societies of hiphop artists. Knowing these similarities between the two considerably contributed to the pleasure of hearing Raekwon on the opening track, “Zenith,” of Grayskul’s new album, Zenith. But who is Grayskul? It is Oldominion’s Onry Ozzborn (aka Reason) and JFK (aka Recluse). Back in 2005, Grayskul (which then included the Beacon Hill bassist and producer Rob Castro) helped launch a new wave of hiphop with Deadlivers, an album released by Minneapolis-based indie hiphop label Rhymesayers Entertainment (the house for such acts as Atmosphere, Brother Ali, and our very own Jake One). Grayskul are, in sound and mode, a continuation of Oldominion; Raekwon is still one of the most recognized rappers in Wu-Tang Clan, and he dropped the collective’s fourth masterpiece, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… As a consequence, Raekwon’s appearance on the track “Zenith” is something like a door finally opening between two hiphop worlds that, though compatible, never connected and cross-fertilized.

But Wu-Tang Clan has been canonized; it’s a major part of hiphop history. Oldominion, of course, has not. But despite the absence of national and historical recognition, the crew has continued to make great records and steadily contribute a stream of jewels and gems to its massive body of work. Zenith,

• Anna Minard will miss the cupcakes— JESUS, THE CUPCAKES!—even though that time she was on a juice fast, Megan Seling e-mailed the whole office with a list of three different cupcake flavors for everyone to try and ended the e-mail with “I even brought my culinary torch for the brûlée!” Really

• Emily Nokes will miss her weekly e-mails to Megan Seling asking her, again (and again), “How to do that one thing on the blog that only you know how to do, I promise I’ll write it down or something this time!”

• Christopher Frizzelle will miss Megan Seling giving him a hard time about how boring Belle & Sebastian are.

• Dave Segal’s favorite Megan Seling piece is “The Seven Songs I Will Miss the Most (Now That I’m No Longer a Brokenhearted and Depressed Mess of a Human)” from 2011, in which she captured extremely well the mixed feelings of witnessing an integral part of your listening history fade into a state of less significance.

• We also adored Megan Seling’s “Pop Punk Puberty” piece about the less-thanpositive ways her favorite teenage poppunk bands sang about women. Plus, her subsequent online fight with Ben Weasel himself is one of the greatest takedowns of an idiotic has-been we’ve ever witnessed.

• Dan Savage, when asked to comment for this column, said, “It’s a shame that this Megan is leaving the paper after such a short time. I was looking forward to meeting her.”

PUPPETS The World Takes (DJ Bonebrake from X) All Ages

Decibel Festival Proudly Presents JON HOPKINS Clark Nathan Fake 21+

Stand Up Comedian SEAN O’CONNOR 21+

dinner & show

FRI/NOVEMBER 22 • 7PM & 9:30PM the dusty 45s w/ jack geary & the owl n’ thistle band

SAT/NOVEMBER 23 • 8PM STG PRESENTS brett dennen w/ grizfolk

SUN/NOVEMBER 24 • 7:30PM chris hillman & herb pedersen w/ mary gauthier

WED/NOVEMBER 27 • 7PM & 10PM CAN CAN PRESENTS buckaroos

Grayskul’s first album outside of Rhymesayers and first album for Fake Four, the label that houses Dark Time Sunshine (DTS is Onry Ozzborn and Chicago’s Zavala), is a solid work that features equally solid contributions from Katie Kate, Aesop Rock, and Thaddeus David. In terms of beats, it’s a mix of the standard, gothically twisted Oldominion sound with tracks that draw from Zavala’s (or DTS’s) gorgeous impressionism—Zavala, however, didn’t produce any of the tracks on the album. In terms of raps, the focus here is science fiction. Onry and JFK not only rap about space travel, falling stars, and distant planets, but also reference classic science-fiction hiphop like Rakim’s “Follow the Leader” (“Planets as small as balls of clay”). Seattle still has space on the mind.

Beyond the Stars by Space3man

Beyond the Stars, a new EP by Seattle rapper Spac3man, is, again, all about the stuff of rockets, aliens, and comets. Containing eight tracks, one of which is produced by Jake One, and three by Nissim (formerly named D.Black and one of the founders of Sportn’ Life Records), Beyond the Stars basically keeps Spac3man’s name in circulation. Though it has several slamming tracks, the cookie is “Speakin’ Tongues,” which was produced by DJ Phinisey. That track is going straight into my top 10 of the year. Not only does Phinisey display some serious pad skills, but Spac3man shows he is not to be forgotten and ignored. With him, the harder the beat, the harder he rocks.

Eyes Open by Sol

LiveMixtapes Presents: A Special Evening w/ NACHO PICASSO + AVATAR DARKO All Ages

Caribbean Blu Presents VINTAGE REGGAE NIGHT VOL. 2 Alex Ducan, Blumeadows, ZJ Redman 21+

Tuesday Dec. 17th YUNA Friday Feb. 7th ZION I UP & COMING

12/1 CRASH KINGS 12/3 CHURCH OF MISERY, SAVIOURS, WIZARD RIFLE 12/4 MOWGLI’S

12/5 LISSIE 12/6 AND AND AND 12/7 THE WHITE BUFFALO 12/8 ANDREA GIBSON

12/10 JAKE MILLER 12/12 MIDLAKE 12/13 & 12/14 PICKWICK

12/19 SALLIE FORD & THE SOUND OUTSIDE 12/21 THE PHYSICS 12/20 MY GOODNESS

12/26 WAX 12/27 BLACK BREATH 12/31 FLAVR FORTRESS 1/09 AUSTIN JENCKES

1/10 CALIFONE 1/11 AUSTIN JENCKES 1/17 WOODEN SHJIPS 1/24 DJ QUIK

1/24 PATTERSON HOOD 1/31 JOHNNY FLYNN 2/4 ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER 2/28 AER 5/3 WE ARE SCIENTIST

FRI/NOVEMBER 28 & SAT/NOVEMBER 29 • 8PM 7TH ANNUAL THANKSGIVING WEEKEND MELTDOWN the paperboys w/ danny godinez (11/29) & locarno (11/30)

SUN/DECEMBER 1 • 7PM ABBEY ARTS PRESENTS the winter round

next • 12/2 2nd annual dammit liz holiday special • 12/3 ed kowalczyk “i alone acoustic” • 12/4 omar torrez • 12/5 david bromberg quintet • 12/6 vaden todd lewis • 12/7 an evening with joe henry • 12/8 an evening with buika • 12/10 rhett miller • 12/12 - 12/28 land of the sweets: the burlesque nutcracker

• 12/31 an evening with storm large • 1/2 seth freeman cd release party with the cody rentas band

While others are in space, Sol—a rapper who recently returned from a yearlong trip around the world—keeps things on the ground on his new EP , Eyes Open. Sol raps about his travels, his relationships, his current concerns, and the direction his post-trip art is taking with great realism. The work, indeed, comes very close to the kind of honesty you would expect to find in a diary. But in terms of beats, Eyes Open is a lot more radio-friendly than Sol’s previous EPs, and this is not at all a bad thing. Seriously, Seattle needs more Macklemores on the top of the charts, and it would not surprise me in the least if Sol were the next rapper to hit the big time. He is handsome, smart, and not deaf to the sweet call of pop success. Sol plays the Showbox at the Market on Wednesday, November 27.

Doc Watson by Spekulation

• 11/20 closed for a private event • 11/21 green river blues • 11/22 gypsy swing happy hour: the djangomatics / michael stegner’s piano rock diaspora • 11/23 the jason sees band

• 11/24 jj’z soul funkshun • 11/25 monday jazz sessions w/ pereira/goessl/bush trio • 11/26 singer-songwriter showcase featuring: matney cook, paul benoit and rachel harrington

Last on my list of fall 206 EPs/LPs is Spekulation’s Doc Watson, a collection of instrumentals. At first, I planned to avoid this work entirely because Spekulation is primarily recognized as a rapper—and rappers are rarely good at production, and producers are rarely good at rapping. I only need to mention RZA, one of the greatest producers to ever walk the earth. As a rapper, however, RZA utterly sucks eggs—sadly this suckiness has never stopped him from rapping (where are the gravediggers for Bobby Digital?). That said, Spekulation’s Doc Watson surprised me not only with its richness, but with its confidence and commitment to the basics. The album contains 13 beats, five of which are exceptional. You only need to hear “Tattoos & Golden Rings,” which features a sample of the jazz musician Ahamefule J. Oluo and soul singer okanomodé, to know that Spekulation is not making up shit. He actually knows what he is doing.

available on LP 11/25

Take Two

The Crutchfields

Go Their Separate Ways, Together

BY ANDREW HALL

TWaxahatchee,

Swearin’ w/Dead Bars

Wed Nov 27, Chop Suey, 8 pm, $10 adv/ $12 DOS, 21+

win sisters and former bandmates Allison and Katie Crutchfield’s careers seem fated to converge both inevitably and indefinitely. After disbanding P.S. Eliot in 2011—a band in which Katie played guitar and sang and Allison played drums, and which started when they were both teenagers in Birmingham, Alabama—Allison became the dominant presence in Swearin’, which debuted last year with a self-titled album full of relentlessly catchy DIY pop-punk. Katie reemerged as Waxahatchee, a then-solo project whose first record, American Weekend, sounded like sketches of a breakup sung from the bottom of a well in the dead heat of a humid Southern summer. Allison’s new songs were outsize, like they’d been made to conquer a parallel universe Warped Tour; Katie’s were disarmingly, immediately intimate. Both records sounded fully formed and drastically different; their follow-ups are less so. On Cerulean Salt, Waxahatchee gains a rhythm section in Swearin’ members Keith Spencer and Kyle Gilbride, hence their touring together making perfect sense. Katie is still front and center, but the expanded arrangements give momentum and rhythmic heft to songs like “Coast to Coast.” Meanwhile, Allison works a lovely and utterly stunning song called “Loretta’s Flowers” into her band’s new record, Surfing Strange The Crutchfields’ shared personnel’s tendency to sound like lost great ’90s indie-rock

bands and their common aesthetic interests also help to draw out their differences. The best songs from Swearin’ are buzz saws— driven by aggressive rhythms and riffs that propel Allison’s songs forward, as they do on “Kenosha” or “Dust in the Gold Sack.” And if Allison’s songs are full of release, Katie’s contain universes’ worth of tension, delivered in hushed tones nuanced enough to feel painfully real without being overwrought. “Swan Dive” begins with the words “I cling to indifference,” as she details a relationship between two people struggling to continue to lie to each another. It’s a loaded phrase—one that sticks around long after it’s sung—and these songs are full of them.

Though their music found its first home in DIY, and many of these songs could be for and about basements, house parties, touring, and the people who live in that world every day, the Crutchfields are making bracing, universal takes on all of that. Be astounded by the fact that they’re both 24, and know that their best work is probably yet to come.

Fall, football and feathers!

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21

JAMES BLAKE THREADS A GOSPEL OF ICE

A conveyor belt rolls slowly down the corridor at the beginning of James Blake’s collaboration with Brian Eno, “Digital Lion.” The song sits at number seven on the track list of Blake’s second full-length album, Overgrown. When the “Digital Lion” snare sounds hit, it’s like a 300-pound bag of nickels being dropped from five stories up into a dump truck full of pillows. Blake’s azure, dream-cast vibrato vocals swirl into the scene on top of a falling leaf. Then the conveyor belt turns into an engine room. Giant cylinders shake and pound to a distant and dire synth. Multiple layers of Blake’s vocals sing—he switches his voice into an instrument threading the needle of the song through a gospelscoped route. There’s that electronic gospel component to James Blake. A frozen, stoic soul out of Enfield, London. Like his first album, Overgrown is precise and sparsely composed, but it seems to move more. Blake has absolute vocal control, showing a previously un-shown lower register on the first single, “Retrograde.” Blake spoke from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with an ease and lucidity to his speaking voice.

Do you ever have a problem knowing when a song is finished? As a producer, is it hard to keep yourself from adding things? If I can play a song to someone else and feel okay about it, and not want to fix it, that’s when I know it’s finished. When you play someone a song and all you hear are things you want to redo or fix, that’s not such a good sign. I think it’s better to get songs the way you want them, or you’re going to have to relive that part you’re not comfortable with over and over.

really set out to write an album. I mean, I knew I was writing one—I just didn’t approach it like that. I put so much into it, pouring feelings, recalling experiences from the last two years of my life. Remembering friends I’ve lost, friends I’ve gained, love, hurt, everything. Touring is good. It recharges the songwriting batteries.

You’re a Hendrix fan, I believe. Very much so, yes. Band of Gypsys is amazing. Live at the Fillmore East is a newer discovery for me. I love that you can hear the sound of the crowd. Buddy Miles is such a great drummer. Billy Cox on bass. Buddy sings some, as well. Singing and drumming at the same time, he does it incredibly well. And Jimi, he gets so beyond. It’s inspiring to me, the arrangement—an arrangement made to play live. There’s a pacing, too, and the crowd noise is so great with people clapping. It’s the same reason I like a lot of gospel records—you can hear the sound of the people in the church.

How was working with RZA on “Take a Fall for Me”? How did that go down? It was a modern-day internet expedition [laughs]. I sent him the instrumental, and apparently he’d heard of me, which was flattering. It was slightly unsettling to just send tracks away to someone like that, but what he sent back was amazing. He gave it

I have this image of you singing and playing your keys from the middle of a huge frozen lake. Have you had an experience in your life where you bonded with ice? Do you like igloos? Talk about igloos. I like igloos. I like the idea of playing on the middle of a big frozen lake. How about for the next video? I don’t know if I’ve had any extra-special experiences with ice, though.

What’s changed between your first album and Overgrown? I made more of an effort to write more songs this time. Before, I would experiment with patching snippets together and seeing where they went. This time, I was more focused on the songs as a whole. I think these songs sound a little better live than the first album. In a way, I wrote this album to play live, so it translates more naturally into a live setting. I also think Overgrown seems more rounded, as an album—my voice is less affected this time around, and I think that unifies it. Songs on Overgrown are easier for me to sing. I’ve had a lot of practice [laughs].

How do you feel after making an album? Emotionally spent. It’s funny, I didn’t

a sensitivity and an intimacy that were so great. He nailed it. We’ve performed it live now, which was a huge honor.

And the track with Brian Eno, “Digital Lion,” is great. How was working with Brian Eno? While I was making Overgrown, Brian became sort of an objective ear. It was really nice to talk to somebody like him about the album. He sort of justified the direction it was going by telling me I didn’t need to change anything. He’s absolutely the nicest guy.

What was some of the very first music that ever grabbed you? Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book. “I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)” is one of the greatest songs ever. The lyrics are heartbreakingly good. When I was growing up, I listened to a lot of classical and jazz pianists—Sam Cooke, Joni Mitchell. For me, it was more about voices, as opposed to liking a genre.

And then you discovered ice and igloos. Yes. [Laughs] Then I truly found my way…

“He’s the best fUCKIng performer in Seattle.”

Directed by Ian Bell

Music directed by David Russell Starring Jerick Hoffer & Erin Stewart

Music and Lyrics by STEPHEN TRASK

Book by JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL

DECEMBER 17-22

Sponsored by:

BY ANNA MINARD

Anna Minard claims to “know nothing about music.” For this column, we force her to listen to random records by artists considered to be important by music nerds.

BOARDS OF CANADA

Music Has the Right to Children (Warp/Matador)

Music Has the Right to Children opens up sounding like a massage room. There are ferns, dim lights, and lotion smells. A lot of people I talked to this week like Boards of Canada because there’s almost no words, so it makes good background music for wordy things like writing and reading; I thought at first it would be too relaxing and end up being good background music for an accidental nap. (I tried to get someone to give me a back rub while listening to this by saying, “It’s for work!” No one fell for it. Jerks.) But starting very quickly, they mix it up a lot. It gets too strange for a reasonable masseuse. On “An Eagle in Your Mind,” over the sound of a hospital breathing machine, an airplane flies faintly overhead. Then on “The Color of the Fire,” a baby robot gurgles, “IIIII… loooove… yooouuuu.” Halfway through, “Kaini Industries” is a

MY PHILOSOPHY

IN THE NEWS, THIS WEEK’S SHOWS

Ask yourself, “Where am I going? How am I doing?” till you get a clear idea. —“Fear Not of Man,” Yasiin Bey (FKA the guy who you, for some reason, insist on calling Mos Def)

Where are we? All over the place. Trinidad James versus New York? Lord Jamar versus change? My palm versus my face? Look, a couple weeks ago, the super-typhoon Haiyan rocked the central Philippines, killed a few thousand people, fucked up a few times more people, and displaced a couple million. More people dead have been counted than in Katrina (a loss whose famously bungled handling at the hands of W is currently being compared to the rollout of Obamacare… if you care). Help if you can—just google the smartest/most impactful avenues to do so and do it. What else? Detroit’s Renisha McBride, allegedly looking for help after being in a car accident, was very much mortally shot, in the face, with a shotgun, by homeowner Theodore Wafer. They’ve miraculously determined that it was a homicide—and that she was intoxicated, too, via a toxicology report. Are those kind of drug screens normal for horrifying shotgun homicides? “The length of black life is treated with short worth,” to quote the man quoted at the top. The state of the shit that I talk about here every week—the thing that allegedly “don’t stop”—is reportedly the same as

keyboard on oboe setting, interrupted by a flute playing a typewriter. And the beats: “Sixtyten” has a beat that’s low but bright enough to catch my attention. But the beat on “Roygbiv” makes my spine move without instruction. Y’know the difference?

If you look at the track listing, you can see that there are longer five- to six-minute songs interspersed with these minute-or-two interludes, e.g., that robo-baby. They’re just handkerchiefs of sound waving as they pass you by. The longer tracks take time to develop, to build songs methodically yet organically, like sand castles, adding turrets here and moats there, and then erasing a whole wing to add a new dungeon or spire. Sometimes words exist in brief fragments: The track “Aquarius” is like a concentrated episode of Sesame Street, with some British guy repeatedly saying the word “orange,” and a woman counting, and children laughing. But mostly if there are word sounds, they’re chopped up and re-formed to be unintelligible—a roomful of conversation you can’t quite catch, or a rambling sleeptalker. It sounds like words, but you can’t unravel the meaning. The feelings here are nameless and mellow. On the album cover, nobody has any faces.

Once, a longer-than-usual pause between songs let a nearby construction site’s noises come in my window. The shush-shush of something wet and the eeeeeeerrrrrrrr of a motor plus some unknown hum all sounded terribly organized and deliberate, just waiting for attention. I was sure you could layer a couple more sounds on top and call it a song. If you listened to BOC all the time, I imagine you’d suddenly be able to hear musical gifts all over the place in the world’s noise, the way some people find snippets of poetry in spam e-mails and poorly written ad copy.

I give this a “now go find your own noise poems, weirdos” out of 10.

“whatever’s happening with us,” me, you. If we have been decimated, if we’re shellshocked, lost, burned (chemically and/or emotionally), or violent, or all of the above, then hiphop is gonna be all that.

Cue the talkbox: “No Surrender-errrrrr.” Elder statesmen of the Judgment Day soldier hymn, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony come to the Neptune on Thursday, November 21, with support from the G-Child, Grynch, and Portland boss Cool Nutz. You will find Montreal’s b-boy-turned-future-beat-monster Lunice, MMG’s Chicago acquisition Rockie Fresh, and SF electro-funk saint B. Bravo, all over at Nectar on Friday, November 22, for the Red Bull Music Academy’s Club Tour.

From his affably unflappable stage presence to the deepening/sharpening ice-bloodedness of his recorded highlights, Moor Gang’s Cam the Mac has made an entry into the local game as impressive as just about anybody you could point to, for my money. His Petty Pro–laced jammy “Lord” is free on the internet but should be fifteen a gram—he headlines at the Vera Project on Saturday, November 23, with the MG’s Mack Ned (who’s naming his album Alice Glass, I’m assuming after the singer of Toronto’s Crystal Castles) and PDX’s bestkept fucking secret, Cassow (pronounced “Kosso,” G), and DJ Matlock

“Do dope, fuck hope,” snapped Killer Mike, a fucking rapping Sherman tank, last week onstage at the Neptune, running through the cut from Run the Jewels’ monstrous 2013 debut—and nailing the current spirit of the country he admitted to loving, fiercely, while he put its feet to the coals. I felt the spirit. It was a revival. Not being on any dope at that moment, it actually gave me quite a bit of hope. Stuff comes in fucking handy.

UP&COMING

Lose your codpiece and all every night this week! For the full music calendar, see page 45 or visit thestranger.com/music For ticket on-sale announcements, follow twitter.com/seashows

Deltron 3030

Wednesday 11/20

Bill Callahan, Mick Turner (Neumos) See Stranger Suggests, page 19.

James Blake, Nosaj Thing (Showbox Sodo) See Sound Check, page 37, and Underage, page 49.

Borgore, Steve Aoki, Waka Flocka Flame (Paramount) See Data Breaker, page 48.

Nobunny, Big Eyes, Loud Eyes

(Barboza) Justin Champlin started as an Elvis impersonator in the deserts of Tucson, Arizona. His evolution into Nobunny was born the day Joey Ramone died (a clear-cut mystical case of Ramones-pop reincarnation), launching him into years of exceptional punk-rock antics—a bit of Cramps and Ramones with a heaping helping of the batshit-genius country recluse Hasil Adkins. He performs in various stages of undress and displays a visceral rock ’n’ roll sexuality, distorted by a creepy, matted rabbit mask that looks like the skinned face of a bog-dredged, mummified Easter bunny. After years touring the country on nonstop DIY/burned-CD-R tours, he’s moved to releasing music on Burger Records, Third Man, and Goner Records—and it’s getting harder to keep the expanding congregation of pagan-punk scumbags from shoving to the front of this expanding Hare-pop cult. BREE MCKENNA

(Crocodile) Comprising rapper Del the Funky Homosapien, producer Dan the Automator, and DJ Kid Koala, Deltron 3030 burst onto the scene back in 2000 with their self-titled sci-fi fantasia. With paranoid lyrics that referenced everything from Y2K to hijacking mechs, backed with Automator’s grandiose beats, Deltron 3030 was a breath of fresh postapocalyptic air in underground rap. Thirteen years later finally sees the release of a follow-up, the scattershot but enjoyable Event 2. Del remains a deft rapper, with a conversational, effortless flow that masks his dense rhyme schemes and mad-scientist vocabulary. Automator’s production still knocks with cinematic menace, chopping up bombastic strings with Koala’s whiz-kid scratches darting among the fray. Good to see them forming like Voltron for one more trip to the future. KYLE FLECK

Thursday 11/21

Hey Marseilles, Emerald City Soul Club (Chop Suey) See Stranger Suggests, page 19.

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Grynch, Cool Nutz

(Neptune) See My Philosophy, page 39.

DRILL: Seattle: Earth, Pillar Point (Barboza) The methodical evolution of Earth (the band, not the planet) has been richly rewarding.

After inventing ambient metal with 1993’s Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version, Earth leader Dylan Carlson veered off the doom-dirge path into more conventional hard-rocking territory—including a Hendrix cover—before a nine-year hiatus resulted in a radical shift to a more spacious, desert-bluesy sound. (The addition of Stranger Genius Lori Goldston’s cello filled out and classed up the low end.) Albums like Hex, The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull, and the two editions of Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light still moved at Earth’s trademark glacial pace, but the guitar attack became much more aerated, the chords hanging in the dusty air and decaying with fraught poignancy; think Ry Cooder’s Paris, Texas soundtrack, but with graver, more forlorn atmospheres. Get ready to ponder, y’all! DAVE SEGAL

Meat Puppets, the World Takes (Crocodile) Arizona’s Meat Puppets are punk legends with a beating heart. Not only did the band bust out the whole of their 1985 stoner classic Up on the Sun at 2011’s All Tomorrow’s Parties, they continue to make and release new music—2011 brought Lollipop, and this spring brought the release of the band’s 14th album, Rat Farm. Tonight, the motherfucking Meat Puppets are playing at the Crocodile, joined by openers the World Takes, a moody power-pop trio made up of Stephen Maglio, Jim Stager of Huffamoose, and X’s DJ Bonebrake. DAVID SCHMADER

Radiolab Live: Apocalyptical: On Fillmore, Noveller, Reggie Watts (Paramount) Tonight’s event is part of a strange, hybrid tour. The agenda is a “thought-provoking and laughter-inducing dance on the grave of our inevitable demise,” featuring major comedians like Patton Oswalt, Reggie Watts, and Kurt Braunohler and experimental musicians Noveller and On Fillmore. Apocalypse LOL? Okay. Noveller (Brooklyn’s Sarah Lipstate, who’s played with Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca) conjures eerie, emotive atmospheres with guitar and effects, often toggling between fuzzed-out turbulence and spangly placidity. On Fillmore (Wilco percussionist Glenn Kotche and Dazzling Killmen/Brise-Glace bassist Darin Gray) maneuver with fascinating tactility among exotica, cinematic post-rock, and minimalism. They’re like Tortoise, but with fewer members, less hoopla, and more vibraphone. DAVE SEGAL

Dogs of War, Levels, X-suns

(Highline) When bands say something like, “We play a unique blend of influences like you’ve never heard before!” it usually means they sound exactly like whatever influences they claim. An artist has a context the listener will never have—it’s difficult to see past intent to hear reality. Seattle band Levels, though, really do defy easy labeling. Sure, it’s rock, but I also hear new-wave revival acts like She Wants Revenge and the Killers. There’s no synth, though, and the bass is heavier and fuzzier, almost doomy at points. And maybe it’s just because I have Bowie on the brain, but I feel like “Diamonds” is some-

WEDNESDAY 11/20

TAKE SHELTER WITH DAVID KOSIN, MALPRACTICE AND DELANEY

$6 • 9PM

THURSDAY 11/21

CABANA WITH NO GRAVE AND GOODBYE HEART

$6 • 9PM

FRIDAY 11/22

TAKE WARNING PRESENTS:

DADBONER LIVE WITH SPECIAL GUEST MATT BRAUNGER, BRETT HAMIL AND MARCO COLLIN

$15 • 10PM

SATURDAY 11/23

THEY RISE WE DIE WITH PIANO PIANO, FOREIGN RESORT AND SCRIPTURES

$8 ADV • 10PM

MONDAY 11/25

17TH CHAPTER WITH VERBAL TIP AND COTTON MAYER

$6 • 8PM

WEDNESDAY 11/27

CASCADIA ‘10 WITH DOWN NORTH AND REAL DON MUSIC

$8 • 9PM

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 22 | 7:30 PM

TAKE

thing the Goblin King would sing if he were fronting Depeche Mode, something I’d very much like to see, codpiece and all. Check it out at facebook.com/ levelstheband. MEGAN SELING

Friday 11/22

Nine Inch Nails, Explosions in the Sky (KeyArena) See Stranger Suggests, page 19.

Lunice, B. Bravo, WD4D (Nectar) See Data Breaker, page 48, and My Philosophy, page 39.

Julianna Barwick, Hannah Epperson (Fremont Abbey) See Underage, page 49.

Radiolab: On Fillmore, Noveller, Reggie Watts (Paramount) See Thursday.

Quasi, Blues Control, Hobosexual (Tractor) Since the mid ’00s, Pennsylvania’s Blues Control—Lea Cho and Russ Waterhouse—have been forging a unique amalgam of Alice Coltrane–inflected astral jazz, skewed dub, spiritual ambient (they’ve collaborated with New Age master Laraaji), and post-rock. For a two-piece, Blues Control cover a lot of ground, and they do so very interestingly. Cho’s radiant piano motifs and Waterhouse’s cunningly distorted guitar arabesques reach a sophisticated peak on their latest album for Drag City, Valley Tangents, as exemplified by “Gypsum,” which is one of the greatest A Love Supreme homages I’ve ever heard. It’s hard to gauge where Blues Control will go next, but you can be sure that it’s going to be a thrilling ascent. DAVE SEGAL

XVIII Eyes, Wishbeard, Lazer Kitty, Half Kingdom (Lo-Fi Performance Gallery) Complementing 206 hiphop’s massive and expanding space program (whose recent launches have been Grayskul’s Zenith and Spac3man’s Beyond the Stars) is a local post-rock band called Lazer Kitty. Its members are Jason Jordan

(on bass), the electro wizard Scot Porter/Vox Mod (on drums), and the founder of Unsound America, Kyle Porter (on the synthesizer). But unlike the 206’s space program, which is mostly about traveling through space, visiting distant planets, and communicating with aliens, Lazer Kitty are about the very nature, structure, and textures of space itself. The music does not go anywhere, but instead slowly—almost carefully—unfolds and reveals the galactic stuff of time, heat, light, and forms of life. CHARLES MUDEDE

Monster Magnet, Royal Thunder, Zodiac, Witchburn (Neumos) Monster Magnet have been wielding their flamboyant psych metal for damn near a quarter century. During the early ’90s, Dave Wyndorf and his fellow heavy muthas had the world by

the short and curlies with a spate of high-impact singles and the dazzling stoner-rock classics Tab and Spine of God. Those LPs still sound like druggy revelations. Monster Magnet’s new album, Last Patrol, is better than expected. Skip the late-era Bob Segerism of the opening song and dig into the other eight tracks, which flirt licentiously with most of the Magnet’s usual tropes—languid, lysergic epics; growling biker metal; Hawkwind homages; rugged blues rock—but what tropes they are. Monster Magnet’s power trip rages on. DAVE SEGAL

Esoterics: PROFANA

(First Lutheran Church of Richmond Beach) In November and December, the Esoterics will perform two separate centennial concerts around the music of Benjamin Britten. The first will include every

single one of Britten’s secular choral works, and the second (December 6–8) will include every single one of his sacred works. So far, the roster for these concerts includes 64 singers in three separate ensembles. This show runs through November 24 at various venues. JEN GRAVES

Helms Alee, Qui, Victory and Associates, Tacos!

(Chop Suey) What I most love about Helms Alee is their ability to absolutely slay you when you least expect it. Listen to their song “Pretty as Pie” off their latest release, Weatherhead. For the first couple minutes, starry and echoing guitar arpeggios ring out. The repetition begins to wrap around you—their beauty, their calming consistency, comforts you. Then BOOM. The buzziest bass you’ve ever heard bangs you over the head. The arpeggios continue, almost tauntingly, as singer Ben Verellen starts to growl. Seattle duo Tacos!, on the other hand, get you to the same place (deaf) a different way—their songs are cathartic and meaty from end to end. And I love them, too. It takes all kinds, ya know? MEGAN SELING

Saturday 11/23

Airport, Deastro, Ecstatic Cosmic Union (Vermillion) See Data Breaker, page 48.

DRILL: Seattle: Wire, Chastity Belt (Neumos) Legendary British rockers Wire released a stunning trilogy of records in the late 1970s—Pink Flag, Chairs Missing, and 154—that segued from bite-size shards of confrontational anti-punk to spooked art rock in a few short years. Since then, they’ve abruptly broken up, gotten back together, and proceeded to release a boatload of generally great music. Wire have never been ones to rest on their laurels; their later albums continue their rabid experimentalism, spewing out skewed takes on everything from aqueous synth pop to industrial. Their latest, Change Becomes Us, is actually reworked material from what would’ve been their fourth album more than three decades ago,

COFFEE, SPIRITS, AND MUSIC

Wednesday (Afrobeat / Funk) POLYRHYTHMICS

Funky 2 Death, Secret Sound Society

PARTY featuring 2 full sets from WORLD’S FINEST plus DJ Indica Jones spinning 80s hits $7, 8pm doors, 21+

SATURDAY 11/23

DRILL: SEATTLE FT. WIRE

CHASTITY BELT + VESTALS + THE PINKFLAG ORCHESTRA

11/22 MONSTER MAGNET 12/12 DUB POLICE TOUR FT. CASPA 12/17 RUSTIE 12/21 ROSE WINDOWS 12/27 & 1/3 FLY MOON ROYALTY 1/5 VIDEOSEA LIVE 1/17 TRIBAL SEEDS 1/18 MAX BEMIS 1/23 RYAN HEMSWORTH 1/24 YUCK 1/25 DANIEL KIRKPATRICK & THE BAYONETS 1/31 WHITE DENIM 3/1 NICKI BLUHM & THE GRAMBLERS 3/5 DALE EARNHARDT JR. JR. 3/29 LONDON GRAMMAR 4/17 GODFLESH

FRIDAY 12/13

PERE UBU

COMING UP: 11/24 MIKEY DAVIS 11/30 NOVEL NATURE 12/1 BRENDAN CANNING 12/3 KID SMPL 12/6 BASIA BULAT + CATE LE BON 12/8 LEE RANALDO AND THE DUST 12/9 DONTE PEACE 12/10 GAVIN TUREK 12/12 WILL HOGE 12/13 ERIN MCKEOWN 12/14 KING KRULE (SOLD OUT) 1/21 DRENGE 1/23 ROBERT DELONG 2/11 DELOREAN 3/2 TOGETHER PANGEA 3/7 ANGEL OLSEN

1/22

SATURDAY 11/23

PAWS KEATON COLLECTIVE

had they not called it quits. No surprise then that it’s fantastic, continuing a remarkable latter-day streak for these post-punk titans. KYLE FLECK

Guantanamo Baywatch

(Black Lodge) No matter how much you just want to stand at this show with your arms crossed, dear raindrenched Seattleite, Guantanamo Baywatch will pull you into their surf-o-rama swamp party. The Portland jungle-rock/gnarly-garage trio will make you dance to their shaggy, reverb-heavy hits, and you will wish you were wearing a zebra-print swimsuit, in LA, in the ’60s. Pro dance tip: Brush up on the shimmy, the boogaloo, and the twist. EMILY NOKES

Girl Trouble, Head, the Fallouts (Chop Suey) This is a record rerelease party for the album Hit It or Quit It by Girl Trouble—the Pacific Northwest’s premiere, self-proclaimed “slowest working band in showbiz!” While that may sound negative, it’s really not. Girl Trouble are a foreverrunning local treasure, not unlike Dead Moon or Mudhoney—all three of which have been severely underappreciated and underplayed over the years. Fans of the Cramps should take note: Girl Trouble’s lead singer Kurt “K.P.” Kendall sounds like and channels all the best ethos of Cramps’ Lux Interior (RIP!). The rest of the band—the “girl in Girl Trouble” drummer Bon Von Wheelie, guitarist Kahuna, and bassist Dale Phillips—make the best, most scrappy lo-fi garage stomp you’ve (maybe) never heard. KELLY O

Cam the Mac, Mack Ned, Cassow (Vera) This all-ages bill features three of the fastest rising (for all the right reasons) rappers from the greater Northwest. Cam the Mac, Moor Gang member and West Seattle repper, excels at a classic brand of smoked-out pimpery—think Devin the Dude minus the singing. Mack Ned has already flexed his ultra-modern ambient sample/booming drums production skills on countless Moor Gang tracks, but his first single, “Fireworks” (apparently from his upcoming album Alice Glass), proves he can hold his own as a rapper who’s “poppin 8-bit drugs/choppin 808s up.” Portland’s Cassow burst onto the proverbial scene earlier this year with his Cold Winter mix-

tape, which, in addition to solid, varied beats and a thorough, hungry-sounding delivery, includes bigname features from Danny Brown and Smoke DZA. This one’s a can’t-miss for local rap heads. MIKE RAMOS See also My Philosophy, page 39.

Sunday 11/24

Albert Hammond Jr.

(Chop Suey) When he’s not at his day job playing guitar for the Strokes, Albert Hammond Jr. is writing catchy little indie-pop numbers, a bit reminiscent of another group of well-coiffed New Yorkers: Vampire Weekend. Clean-as-a-whistle electric guitars, bouncy bass lines, wistful lyrics about nothing in particular, everything executed with no-frills professionalism. There are even a few requisite dips into more exotic territory, like the quasi-reggae bop of “Borrowed Time.” It’s all very polite and approachable, more upstate suburbia than Brooklyn. For those among us who find the Strokes a little too threatening. All that leather! KYLE FLECK

Monday 11/25

Morbid Angel, Gravenloch, Funeral Age

(Studio Seven) It was just two years ago when classic Floridian death metal group Morbid Angel dropped the ultimate turd bomb on the world of extreme music. Illud Divinum Insanus was advertised as a brutal comeback, but in the end, became arguably the most disappointing and universally panned metal album of the past decade. So why, then, am I hearing such a buzz about this tour?

Chances are, it’s due to the fact that they will be playing their landmark third record, 1993’s Covenant, in its entirety. Regardless of recent output, they’re still Morbid fucking Angel. KEVIN DIERS

Tuesday 11/26

Jon Hopkins, Clark, Nathan Fake (Crocodile) See Data Breaker, page 48.

TEXTURALLY VIVID HIPHOP

a PARAMOUNT

THEATRE Steve Aoki, Borgore, Waka Flocka Flame, Botnek, Kryoman, 7:30 pm, $32.75

PIES & PINTS Live Rotating Bands: Guests, 8:30 pm

PINK DOOR Casey MacGill

& the Blue 4 Trio, 8 pm

SEAMONSTER The Unsinkable Heavies, Rippin Chicken, 10 pm, free

SHIP CANAL GRILL The Canteloupes Jazz Jam, 7:30 pm

a SHOWBOX SODO James Blake, Nosaj Thing, 8 pm, $30/$35

SKYLARK CAFE & CLUB

Open Mic: Guests

a STUDIO SEVEN The Decoys, Cosmic Avenue, 7 pm, $10

SUNSET TAVERN Take Shelter, David Kosin, $6

7 pm, $16/$20

HIGH DIVE Scandals, Your City Sleeps, Qeluga, Bardo Basho, 8 pm, $6

HIGHLINE Medicine Bows, Traindodge, Self Evident, $5 HIGHWAY 99 Dirty Rice, 8 pm, $6

JAZZ ALLEY The Four Freshmen, 7:30 pm, $26.50

a NEPTUNE THEATRE Vienna Teng, 7 pm, $25-$50

NEUMOS Bill Callahan, Mick Turner, 8 pm, $20

NEW ORLEANS Legacy Band, Clarence Acox OHANA Live Island Music

TRACTOR TAVERN

Someone Still Loves You

Boris Yeltsin, Army Navy, Hibou, $10

VITO’S RESTAURANT & LOUNGE Burns, Harper, Gibson, Goodhew

DJ

BALTIC ROOM Crunk: DJ Henski, Marty Mar, Blue Eyed Soul, Bgeezy, guests

CONTOUR Rotation Tryouts: Guests

THE EAGLE VJDJ Andy J

ELECTRIC TEA GARDEN Passage: Jayms Nylon, Joey

Webb, guests

HAVANA SoulShift: Peter Evans, Devlin Jenkins, Richard Everhard, $1

LAST SUPPER CLUB Vibe Wednesday: Jame$Ervin, DT, Contagious

LAVA LOUNGE Mod Fuck

Explosion: DJ Deutscher Meister

MOE BAR The Hump: DJ Darwin, DJ Swervewon, guests, 10:30 pm, free NEIGHBOURS Undergrad: Guest DJs, $5/$8

PONY Body 2 Body: 10 pm

SEE SOUND LOUNGE Fade: DJ Chinkyeye, DJ Christyle, 10 pm

THURS

11/21

LIVE

AQUA BY EL GAUCHO Ben Fleck, 6 pm

BARBOZA Earth, Pillar Point, 8 pm, $15

BLUE MOON TAVERN Lakefight, Mitts, Koda Sequoia, $5

BOGART’S Neutralboy, Load Levelers, Loud Eyes, $6

CAFE RACER Earl Brooks

CAN CAN Vince Mira a CHOP SUEY

Obamacare Party: Emerald City Soul Club, Hey Marseilles, 8 pm, $5

CONOR BYRNE Don DiLego, Rebecca Johnston, Elephant

Gazebo, $8

a CROCODILE Meat

Puppets, the World Takes, 8 pm, $14

DISTRICT LOUNGE Cassia

DeMayo Quintet, 8 pm, free EL CORAZON Finntroll, Blackguard, Metsatoll, Hedon, 7:30 pm, $20/$25

a GUAYMAS CANTINA

Oleaje Flamenco, 8 pm, free HARD ROCK CAFE These

Young Fools, Spring the Trap, 8 pm, $5

HIGH DIVE The Drunken

Guitarists, 8 pm, free HIGHLINE Dogs of War, Levels, X-suns, Witch Ripper, $7

HIGHWAY 99 Klyntel, 8 pm, $7

JAZZ ALLEY The Four Freshmen, 7:30 pm, $26.50

LITTLE RED HEN Marlin

James Trio, $3

LUCID The Hang: Caffeine, 9:30 pm, free

NECTAR The Highlife Band, Positive Rising, Rooted Skies, 8 pm, $6

PARAMOUNT THEATRE Radiolab Live—Apocalyptical: On Fillmore, Noveller, Reggie Watts, $32.25$42.25

PINK DOOR Bric-a-Brac, 8 pm

PONCHO CONCERT HALL

Scrape, 8 pm, $20

THE ROYAL ROOM The 1 Uppers, 8 pm

SCARLET TREE How Now Brown Cow, 9:30 pm, free SEAMONSTER Evan Flory Barnes

THE STEPPING STONE PUB

Open Mic: Guests

SUNSET TAVERN Cabana, No Grave, Goodbye Heart, $6

TRACTOR TAVERN Skerik’s Bandalabra, $10/$12

TULA’S Fred Hoadley’s Sonando, 8 pm, $10

VITO’S RESTAURANT & LOUNGE The Jason Parker Quartet, Casey MacGill, 5:30 pm, free THE WHITE RABBIT Marmalade, $6

DJ

BALLROOM DJ Rob, free BALTIC ROOM Revolution: DonnaTella Howe, Olivia LaGarce, guests

THE EAGLE Nasty: DJ King of Pants, Nark

BARE BUTT VS. SIDE BOOB (WITH BRA): A QUIZ

W

hich of the following should be outlawed in 2013? (A) Dresses that are so short, a person can see your underwear when you’re spinning on a dance floor, (B) low-rise, Brazilian-cut, boy-short panties (especially in red lace), or (C) wearing a side-boob-ready T-shirt WITH A BRA.

Find the correct answer to this very important quiz at thestranger.com/drunk oftheweek. KELLY O

TAJ MAHAL TRIO

FRI, NOV 22 - SUN, DEC 1

(CLOSED ON MON, NOV 25TH & THANKSGIVING)

Composer and multi-instrumentalist, Mahal is a two-time Grammy winner and one of the most influential American blues and roots artists of the past half-century.

ELDAR

TUE, DEC 3 - WED, DEC 4

“He’s a (piano) genius beyond most young people I’ve heard.” - Dave Brubeck

ANGIE STONE

THU, DEC 5 - SUN, DEC 8

Neo-soul singer/songwriter with over 5 million albums sold worldwide and ten singles on the R&B charts

LOUIS HAYES and THE CANNONBALL LEGACY BAND

MON, DEC 9

For more than 40 years, Hayes has been a catalyst for energetic swing, straight ahead post-bop, and modern jazz. Joining Mr. Hayes: Vincent Herring, Jeremy Pelt, Rick Germanson, and Dezron Douglas

MIKE STERN BAND feat. RANDY BRECKER, ANTHONY JACKSON, AND KEITH CARLOCK

TUE, DEC 10 - WED, DEC 11 Jazz fusion all-star band

DJ Lightray, $3

Chill: DJ MS

Babies:

Aykut Ozen, Pretty Baby

SOUND LOUNGE Damn Son: DJ Flave, Sativa Sound System, Jameson Just, Tony Goods, $5 after 10:30 pm

THERAPY LOUNGE DUH.: DJ Omar, guests TRINITY Space Thursdays: Rise Over Run, DJ Christyle, Johnny Fever, DJ Nicon, Sean Majors, B Geezy, guests , free THE WOODS Pure Thursdays: Omar Valadez, MMars, Chris T, 10 pm, free FRI

11/22

LIVE AQUA BY EL GAUCHO Ben Fleck, 6 pm

BARBOZA Shelby Earl, Shannon Stephens, Each & All, 7 pm, $10

BLUE MOON TAVERN Mrs. Howl, the Ram Rams, $5

CHOP SUEY Helms Alee, Qui, Victory and Associates, Tacos!, $8

CONOR BYRNE Whiting Tennis

DARRELL’S TAVERN Cascadia 10, $7

EL CORAZON Aaron Carter, 7:30 pm, $17/$20

HEARTLAND Aidan Knight, 8 pm

HIGH DIVE Parade Schedule, Cloud Person, 9:30 pm, $8

HIGHLINE Doom Syndicate and Severhead: Doom Syndicate, Severhead, Tomb of Ligeia, Trashcan Wizard, 9:30 pm, $8

HIGHWAY 99 Mutha Knows Best, 8 pm, $12

JAZZ ALLEY Taj Mahal Trio, 9:30 pm, $28.50 a KEYARENA Nine Inch Nails, Explosions in the Sky, $39.50-$99.50

THE KRAKEN BAR & LOUNGE Koozbane, the Basque Rats, Cosgrove, free LITTLE RED HEN Highway 9, $5

LO-FI XVIII Eyes, Wishbeard, LAZER_KITTY, Half Kingdom, $7

NECTAR Lunice, Rockie Fresh, B. Bravo, 8 pm

NEUMOS Monster Magnet, Royal Thunder, Zodiac, Witchburn, 8 pm, $18

PARAGON Levi Said, free PARAMOUNT THEATRE Radiolab Live—Apocalyptical: On Fillmore, Noveller, Reggie Watts, $32.25-$42.25

RAVIOLI STATION

TRAINWRECK Dizzy, guests a THE ROYAL ROOM

Piano Royale, 5:30 pm, Pearl Django, 8:30 pm

COLUMBIA CITY THEATER Ian McFeron, Massy Ferguson, Modern Relics, 7 pm, $10/$12

SEAMONSTER Funky 2 Death, 10 pm, free

SHIP CANAL GRILL Alma y Azucar

SHOWARE CENTER Pretty Lights, 7 pm

SKYLARK CAFE & CLUB Crown Row, 8 pm, $7

SLIM’S LAST CHANCE Blackheart Honeymoon, Vaudeville Etiquette, Sunday Evening Whiskey Club

STUDIO SEVEN Ryan Cabrera, Keaton Simons, Dylan Jakobsen, guests , 5 pm, $13/$15

TIM’S TAVERN St. Christopher, Justin Marie, Dan Infecto, Jack Rainwater

TRACTOR TAVERN Quasi, Blues Control, Hobosexual, 9:30 pm, $15

TRIPLE DOOR The Dusty 45s, 9:30 pm, $20/$25

TULA’S Lary Barilleau & The Latin Jazz Collective, 7:30 pm, $15

a VERA PROJECT Polar Bear Club, Citizen, Diamond Youth, Sainthood Reps, 7 pm, $12/$14

VITO’S RESTAURANT & LOUNGE Kaylee Cole

THE WHITE RABBIT Jake Marsh Trio, Mind Vice, Spontaneous Rex, $6

DJ 95 SLIDE DJ Fever One BALLROOM DJ Tamm of KISS fm BALMAR Body Movin’ Fridays: DJ Ben Meadow, free

BALTIC ROOM Dirty Work: Rotating DJs including Sean Majors, BGeezy, Mikey Mars, Sir Kuts, guests

BARBOZA Just Got Paid: 100proof, $5 after 11:30 pm

CONTOUR Afterhours, 2 am

CUFF TGIF: C&W Dancing: DJ Harmonix, DJ Stacey, 7

FRIDAY 11/22

NO SHADE LIKE NEW SHADE

You can just cram your “cellar doors,” thank you kindly—“opulent queer empire” is obviously the most beautiful string of English words conceived ever, definitely, the end. It’s the new tagline for an equally new queer dance night they’re calling “Shade”—but not shady “throwing shade”–type “shade” (the producers hasten to inform me), “shade” as in a cozy, dim, protective space where you go to be a lot bit naughty. It’s slated to be another of these Tribble-like “once-a-month-ers” springing up at the Eagle (did you ever dream you’d spend so much time there?), a house/disco/ electro dancetravaganza for queers of all stripes. (I think it bears noting that the Eagle, once a stalwart sausage-fest and ground zero of the insular leather crowd, has been saved and buoyed by real bio women, drag queens, queer

pm, Guest DJs, 11 pm, $5

FUEL DJ Headache, guests

HAVANA Rotating DJs:

DV One, Soul One, Curtis, Nostalgia B, Sean Cee, $5

LAST SUPPER CLUB

Madness: Guests

LAVA LOUNGE DJ David

James

NEIGHBOURS UNDERGROUND Caliente

Celebra: DJ Polo, Efren

OHANA Back to the Day: DJ Estylz

RE-BAR TRIBAL!: Rob Noble, Michael Manahan, Guest DJs, 10 pm, $10

SCARLET TREE Oh So Fresh Fridays: Deejay Tone, DJ

Buttnaked, guests

THERAPY LOUNGE Rapture: Guests, $3 after 11 pm

TRINITY Tyler, DJ Phase, DJ Nug, guests , $10

THE WOODS Deep/Funky/

Disco/House: Guest DJs

SAT

11/23

LIVE

AQUA BY EL GAUCHO Ben

Fleck, 6 pm

BALMAR Rotating DJ Night: Guests, 9:30 pm

BARBOZA Paws, 7 pm, $10

a BLACK LODGE Guantanamo Baywatch

BLUE MOON TAVERN

Star Anna, Lowlands, $6

CHOP SUEY Girl Trouble, Head, the Fallouts, $7/$10

COLUMBIA CITY THEATER

The Washover Fans, Rory James and the Majestic, $8/$10

CONOR BYRNE Devilwood, Blue Tracks, Boxcar Stringband

punks, and transsexuals! Amazing days.) It’s headlined by DJ RiffRaff (aka Alea Mahone) and, all the way from some place called “Portland” (where?), DJ Bruce LaBruiser (aka Jenny Bruso), and it’s produced by the brains behind Butch Queen. You are encouraged to “dress-up, dress-down; you do you.” Sounds reasonable to me. The Eagle, 9 pm, $5, 21+.

SATURDAY 11/23

SEX DRUGS DEATH DISCO

CLOSING NIGHT

For some peculiar and inexplicable reason, it is always mid-November that I get obsessed all over again with the sordid story of Michael Alig, James St. James, the infamous NYC club kids, and their drugged-out shenanigans and pursuant killing. I Netflix the damn movie Party Monster for the zillionth time (an irresistibly terrible film, starring Macaulay Culkin’s ass at its freshest and Seth Green at his gayest), and I YouTube the documentary on which it’s based. It’s a compulsion I cannot explain. But this year, all this obsessive nonsense has been rendered completely unnecessary by the live stage production of the fabulously ignoble events surrounding the rise of the club kids and the fall of poor, Drano-filled Angel Melendez Sex Drugs Death Disco stars Craig Trolli, as the maniacal and manslaughtery Alig, and Joel Steinpreis, who brilliantly portrays the foppish and delightfully twisted St. James. It’s a solid, appropriately blood-drenched production that had me grinning my face off, and it nicely satisfied my once-a-year addiction—no Netflixing for me this year, damn it—and tonight is your very last chance to relive the depravity yourself. Re-bar, 7:30 pm, $15 adv/$18 DOS, 21+.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22ND

TAKE WARNING PRESENTS: @DADBONER LIVE WITH SPECIAL GUEST TT BRAUNGER, BRETT HAMIL AND MARCO COLLIN $15 ADV / 9:30PM DOORS / 21+

CROCODILE Band of Heathens

DARRELL’S TAVERN Shelk, the Rags, Paul Lynde Fan Club, $7

a EL CORAZON Cowardice, the Sheds, Clarity, guests 7 pm, $8/$10; Axe Murder Boyz, Mindshot, Dirty D, guests , 8 pm, $12/$15

HARD ROCK CAFE Coven, Kill Closet, Under the Red Door, Agnozia, $10/$13

HIGH DIVE Barbara Mitchell’s Guilty Pleasures: Guests, $8

HIGHWAY 99 Nick Moss & the Flip-Tops, 8 pm, $15

JAZZ ALLEY Taj Mahal Trio, 9:30 pm, $28.50

THE KRAKEN BAR & LOUNGE Success, Payoff, the Loss, Junebugs, $5

LITTLE RED HEN Highway 9, $5

NECTAR Indubious, Luc & the Lovingtons, the Mystic Arrows, 8 pm, $7

NEPTUNE THEATRE Blitzen Trapper, $20/$23 NEUMOS Wire, Chastity Belt, 8 pm, $25

PARAGON Solbird, free PHINNEY

NEIGHBORHOOD

ASSOCIATION Antje Duvekot, 7:30 pm, $16

QUEEN CITY GRILL Faith Beattie, Bayly, Totusek, Guity, free

SEAMONSTER Cavalier, Role One, Role One, Every 10 pm, free

SHIP CANAL GRILL Eugenie Jones, 8:30 pm

SLIM’S LAST CHANCE Bigfoot Accelerator, Black Beast Revival

SONIC BOOM RECORDS Polica, 3 pm, free

SUNSET TAVERN They Rise We Die, Piano Piano, Foreign Resort, Scriptures, 10 pm, $8

TIM’S TAVERN Baby & the Nobody’s, Vaude Villains

TRACTOR TAVERN Hot Buttered Rum, 9:30 pm, $20

TRIPLE DOOR Brett Dennen, 8 pm, $25

TULA’S Jovino Santos Neto Quinteto, 7:30 pm, $15 a VERA PROJECT Cam the Mac, Mack Ned, Cassow, 7:30 pm, $5

VERMILLION Airport, Deastro, Ecstatic Cosmic Union

VITO’S RESTAURANT & LOUNGE Ruby Bishop, 6 pm DJ

BALLROOM DJ Warren

BALTIC ROOM Good Saturdays: Guest DJs

BARBOZA Inferno: Guests, 10:30 pm, free before 11:30 pm/$5 after CONTOUR Europa Night: Misha Grin, Gil

WEDNESDAY 11/20

THE AGGRESSIVE MEDIOCRITY OF ISRAELI DUBSTEPPER BORGORE

It’s the Aokify America Tour, people. Get pumped! Rich LA boy/faux DJ Steve Aoki is bringing some of his chums to stun you with their aggressive mediocrity. Maybe the most interesting of the lot here is Borgore, an Israeli dubstep producer whose nom de musique sounds more suited for death metal. His new single, “Wild Out,” which features rapper Waka Flocka Flame (who’s also on the bill) and female vocalist Paige, is a dubstep/hiphop/R&B fusion that does none of those styles exceptionally well. Borgore’s music is neither crazily heavy nor melodically interesting enough to excite. With Botnek and Kryoman Paramount, 7:30 pm, $32.75/$100 VIP, all ages.

FRIDAY 11/22

GET DOWN TNGHT WITH LUNICE’S FRACTURED HIPHOP

Montreal producer Lunice is half of TNGHT with Scottish phenom Hudson

CUFF Bliss: DJ Harmonix

ELECTRIC TEA GARDEN Shameless

HAVANA Rotating DJs: DV One, Soul One, Curtis, Nostalgia B, Sean Cee, $5

LAVA LOUNGE DJ Matt MOE BAR Panther Down: DJ N8, Anthony Diamond, free

NEIGHBOURS Powermix: DJ Randy Schlager

NEIGHBOURS UNDERGROUND Club

Vogue: DJ Chance, DJ Eternal Darkness

OHANA Funk House: DJ Bean One

PONY Stiffed: DJ Pavone

RE-BAR Cherry: Amateur Youth, Mathematix, 10 pm, $5/$7 after 11 pm SEE SOUND LOUNGE Guest DJs

TRINITY ((SUB)): Guy, VSOP, Jason Lemaitre, guests , $15/free before 10 pm

WOODS Hiphop/R&B/ Funk/Soul/Disco:

Mohawke. Similar to that project, Lunice creates rhythmically fractured and texturally vivid hiphop that’s out to jangle your nerves as much as it is to move your ass. This is maximalist, neon-saturated music that never quite stays in the pocket, but rather rips it to shreds. Tonight’s show is part of the Red Bull Music Academy Tour. With B. Bravo, Rockie Fresh, and WD4D Nectar, 8 pm, $10 adv/$15 DOS, 18+.

SATURDAY 11/23

DEASTRO’S DULCET ELECTRONIC POP On 2009’s Moondagger album, Detroit producer Deastro (Randolph Chabot) came off like a shinier Animal Collective or a more danceable Why?—all wide-eyed vocals floating over reverbglazed, squeaky-clean electronic pop that’s as cuddly as a lapdog. His Mind Altar EP further refines his dulcet, songbased electronic music while increasing the tempos, punching up the beats, and thickening the reverb. With Airport and Ecstatic Cosmic Union, two of the best Seattle acts about whom I’ve written copiously. Vermillion, 9 pm, free (donations accepted for touring act), 21+.

TUESDAY 11/26

THREE BRITISH ELECTRONIC-MUSIC

MAVERICKS WALK INTO A CLUB…

Three classy Brits fill out this Decibelcurated lineup. Nathan Fake makes pretty, occasionally glitchy techno that colors outside the grid in pastel hues. Jon Hopkins has collaborated with Brian Eno, and his own early down-tempo ambient and triphop productions glisten with a subtle beauty. Hopkins’s new album, Immunity, seriously toughens up his sound, adding muscular bass throb and textural grit to his unpredictable techno cuts. Warp recording artist Clark, whose 2012 Decibel Fest set was a stunner, has been creating an exciting, chameleonic brand of electronic music for a dozen years. His prevalent style’s frantic, abstract electro funk, but he also forays into ambient, techno, and IDM with extraordinary intelligence. The near-constant tension in his music between beauteous order and harrowing chaos makes for a fascinating show. Crocodile, 8 pm, $15, 21+.

BY JACKSON HATHORN

WEDNESDAY 11/20

JAMES BLAKE, NOSAJ THING

If you still need a blurb to convince you to see James Blake in 2013, I feel bad for you. Where other modern crooners might channel the totality of R&B with nothing new in return, Blake’s melodic bass blues can sound otherworldly. His latest album, Overgrown, is the sound of a young artist in love, shying away from his earlier experimental work to focus on more immediately gratifying songs that still feature his self-effacing burbling. On the standout track “Retrograde,” all it takes is some Sam Cooke–esque humming, handclaps, and a soft bass drum to build suspense before a shattering synth kicks in. King Krule might be giving him a run for his money, but I think Blake is the most exciting musician in England right now. Tonight he is joined by the regal LA beatmaker Nosaj Thing Showbox Sodo, 8 pm, $29.99 adv/$35 DOS.

FRIDAY 11/22

JULIANNA BARWICK, HANNAH EPPERSON

To get ideas for writing about Julianna Barwick, I spent a full day listening to her music while watching episodes of Planet Earth. Barwick’s ambient folk tends to receive the kind of praise reserved for wide-angle shots of earthly grandeur, and while it’s true that her newest album, Nepenthe, syncs up well with images of undulating schools of fish and the world’s tallest waterfalls, I think you’ll really enjoy it with your eyes closed. Without any distractions, you’re forced to hear Barwick for who she really is: an arresting composer who is capable of creating billowing, blissful, and resonating soundscapes. Rarely do her arrangements have lyrics, let alone words that you can discern. Using vocal loops, Barwick’s reverb-soaked chants swell and ache to form dizzyingly intimate ethereal vortices that I hesitate to even call “songs.” Barwick’s main talent is that she doesn’t have to say anything at all to sound deeply personal. Opening tonight is the violinist Hannah Epperson, who also makes good work of a loop pedal. First laying down choppy and percussive strokes with her violin Epperson then fills in the edges of her songs with gentler pinpricks and tender lyrics. Fremont Abbey, 8 pm, $12.

NOW SHOWING 11/22 - 11/28

FROZEN (PG) Tue: 7:20*

Wed & Thu: (1:20), (4:10)*, 7:20*, 10:20* THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (PG-13) Fri: (3:50), 7:00, 10:00*

Sat - Mon: (12:40)*, (3:50), 7:00, 10:00*

Tue: (12:40)*, (3:50), 7:00^, 10:00*

Wed & Thu: (12:40)*, (3:50), 7:00, 10:00

THOR: THE DARK WORLD (PG-13) Fri: (4:10)*, 7:20*, 10:20

Sat - Mon: (1:20)*, (4:10)*, 7:20*, 10:20 Tue: (1:20)*, (4:10)*, 10:20

12 YEARS A SLAVE (R) Fri: (4:00)*, 7:10*, 10:10*

Sat - Mon: (12:50), (4:00)*, 7:10*, 10:10* Tue: (12:50), (4:00)*, 7:10*^, 10:10*

Wed & Thu: (12:50)*, (4:00)*, 7:10*, 10:10*

FILM

Art and Controversy

Lesbians! The Male Gaze! French People! Blue Is the Warmest Color!

BY ALISON HALLETT

File under: The internet is changing things. It’s increasingly difficult to separate creators from their work, as we have access to more information than ever about the lives and beliefs of people whose work we consume. Rumors of dickish behaviors spread via social media in a way they never did via gossip magazines, and consumers accustomed to voting with their dollars might be tempted to apply the same logic toward entertainment. (Hate homophobia? Don’t see Ender’s Game.) It all begs the question: If you disagree with an artist, should you boycott their work? (Does it matter that if Zelda Fitzgerald had had a Tumblr, we undoubtedly would have

thought differently of F. Scott?)

Personally, the notion of living in a world where I only consume art and entertainment created by people with whom I ideologically agree is some Soviet Russia shit. Plenty of people disagree with me; I’m sorry that those people will miss seeing the excellent new French film Blue Is the Warmest Color, which has been plagued by controversy since its release.

Blue is a French film about a lesbian relationship that’s directed by a man, Abdellatif Kechiche, and stars two straight women. Its lead actresses, Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos, claim their working conditions during filming were “horrible,” particularly

BY DAVID SCHMADER

What is it about the state of Nebraska that drives its chroniclers to restrict themselves to black and white? Before Alexander Payne’s Nebraska came Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, with its David Michael Kennedy cover photo and monochromatic music (just voice and guitar, in spare demo versions). For Springsteen, the monochrome signified a return to stark simplicity, in defiance of the rock ’n’ roll industrial complex that wanted big sparkly hits. In Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, the colorlessness is more in line with what Peter Bogdanovich did in The Last Picture Show—elevating the mundane to the poetic through stately, serious black and white. But where Bogdonavich’s black and white

suggested a town blasted colorless by flatland winds, Payne’s feels editorial, a choice as ostentatious as a gilt frame in communicating that This Is an Important Work of Art. This might prove annoying if Payne’s Nebraska weren’t a VIP artwork packed with just the type of tiny, messy interactions that flower into something almost mythic when writ large, in black and white. The basic plot: An elderly man named Woody (Bruce Dern), with a drinking problem and what seems to be early-stage dementia, receives a letter announcing his win of a million-dollar sweepstakes prize. His adult son (Will Forte) tries to convince him that he’s actually won nothing beyond the opportunity to buy magazines, but

during the film’s already-infamous sex scene. At Cannes, the Palme d’Or was given to both the director and the two leads, an acknowledgement of how intense and fully realized the performances are. Since then, the two women have publicly stated they will never work with Kechiche again. And then there’s the sex: The creator of the graphic novel on which the film was based says the film gets lesbian sex all wrong, and there’s already a hilarious reaction video in which lesbians comment on the perceived authenticity of the sex scenes, which feature more scissoring and butt-slapping than one might expect from two young women having their first sexual encounter.

But here’s the thing: Blue is an excellent movie. It’s three hours long, and it feels half that; it’s a fantastically realistic and welldrawn love story between two women that ranks among the best I’ve ever seen. (Sorry, Better Than Chocolate.) It’s about a high schooler, Adèle (Exarchopoulos), who falls for blue-haired college student Emma (Seydoux) the first time she sees her. Adèle is needy and aimless, hungry for sexual attention, and the two enter into a beautifully adolescent relationship, all hungry sexuality and deep, pseudo-intellectual conversations. As the years pass and the women age, beautiful, vague Adèle slowly begins to come into focus, but it’s not until she screws things up with Emma that she—and we—understand how much the relationship really means to her.

The movie’s sex scenes have gotten a lot of attention for being pornographic—and yes, they are. There’s a seven-minute-long sequence of hilariously advanced lesbian sex, jarringly out of step with the tone and the aesthetic of the rest of the film, and if you want to talk about the male gaze for a while, this movie will afford you a great opportunity to put that women’s studies degree to good use. But the film itself is great, a realistic look at a first relationship that, by its nature, intersects with issues of class, homophobia, and self-definition. The hubbub around Blue shows no sign of diminishing, but the film itself quiets the controversy.

Woody will not be deterred, and soon, father and son are on a road trip from Montana to Nebraska to claim the million-dollar prize.

The trip bogs down in Woody’s former hometown, where he’s laid up with medical issues and welcomed by a motley assortment of old friends and family. Soon, the whole town’s buzzing about Woody’s million-dollar fortune, and things begin to fray, fascinatingly. Payne mined drama from the collision of family and fortune in his previous film, The Descendants, but he takes it even further here, in scenes that range from light psychodrama (Stacy Keach has a great supporting turn as a diabolical old friend) to light slapstick (a couple of “redneck cousins” are played for problematic laughs).

For his role as the deluded Woody, Bruce Dern won the best actor award at this year’s Cannes, but for Nebraska viewers, the key to the film will most likely be Will Forte, a longtime Saturday Night Live cast member who does something small and powerful with his first dramatic lead. For the film’s opening half, Forte’s David is a lightly deluded drip. But as experiences accumulate and he comes to understand, through asides and gossip and quiet confessions, who his father is, he grows into something close to a hero. The final scene of this smart, sad, sweet film is one I’ll never forget.

FILM SHORTS

More reviews and movie times: thestranger.com/film

LIMITED

RUN

BONNIE’S KIDS

A softcore sexploitation film from the early 1970s about a couple of girls who head out on a crime streak after executing their abusive stepdad. On 35 mm. Grand Illusion, Fri-Sat 10 pm.

THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN

A film based on a play about a small-town Belgian tattoo artist and her banjo-playing, bluegrass-loving man. They fall in love and have a daughter who becomes desperately ill, which rips the skin off their fantasies and the facades of their relationship. With a celebrated bluegrass soundtrack by Bjorn Eriksson. Varsity, Fri 4:45, 7:10, 9:35 pm, Sat-Sun 2:20, 4:45, 7:10, 9:35 pm, Mon-Tues 4:45, 7:10, 9:35 pm.

CHRIS MARKER’S REVOLUTIONARY

CINEMA

See Festive, this page. Northwest Film Forum, FriMon. For complete schedule and showtimes, see nwfilmforum.org.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND

Richard Dreyfuss plays a man having a psychically induced midlife crisis that compels him to put his life on hold and travel across country to greet a cosmic happening. Presented on a new 35 mm print! Grand Illusion Cinema, Fri 7 pm, Sat-Sun 4, 7 pm, Mon-Tues 7 pm.

DEATH RING

See Stranger Suggests, page 19 SIFF Film Center, Tues Nov 26 at 7 pm.

GOD LOVES UGANDA

Roger Ross Williams’s documentary charts some terrifying cross-global cause and effect. In America, Christian extremists send young missionaries to Uganda, to spread the gospel of God’s antigay love. Meanwhile, antigay extremist Scott Lively inflames the Ugandan parliament with tales of how gays caused the Holocaust and warns of the worldwide homosexual takeover endorsed by Barack Obama. The result: Ugandans

show their love of Christ and moral disdain for the West by executing their gay brothers and sisters. This is happening. As I type this, Scott Lively is facing a federal court for crimes against humanity. Go see God Loves Uganda. (DAVID SCHMADER) SIFF Cinema Uptown, Fri-Tues 5:15 pm.

IN NO GREAT HURRY: 13 LESSONS IN LIFE

WITH SAUL LEITER

An intimate portrait of the aging New York photographer Saul Leiter and an essay on his philosophy of life, which involves not hurrying. Northwest Film Forum, Mon-Wed 7, 9 pm.

KISS ME DEADLY

A Spillane-penned ‘50s noir about tough-as-nails private dick Mike Hammer getting mixed up with nutty broads. Presented on 35 mm. Seattle Art Museum, Thurs Nov 21 at 7:30 pm.

MOVIE CAT TRIVIA

The deeply beloved movie trivia night returns. Central Cinema, Tues Nov 26 at 7 pm.

OLIVER!

The execrable exclamation mark notwithstanding, Oliver! , as a musical film, is not only superior to its stage version, it might even be superior to Dickens’s novel. (BRENDAN KILEY) SIFF Film Center, Sat 1 pm.

THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO IDEOLOGY

If you love philosophy, you will love this film. If you love cinema, you will love this film. If you love film criticism, you will love this film. And, most important of all, if you love comedy, you will love this film, which is basically Slavoj Zizek, the famous Slovenian philosopher, analyzing a series of good and bad movies (They Live, Brazil, Sound of Music, Taxi Driver, Jaws) to reveal this or that aspect of human ideology. What is ideology? It’s usually some aspect of culture that we see as natural, as eternally true, as downright commonsensical. And it is the job of a philosopher, and particularly a Marxist philosopher, to

reveal the truth. Why is this an important thing to do in the first place? Because those in power benefit from us believing that things like markets or wage-labor are fixed facts of life rather than fluid ones. The best moment in the film is Zizek philosophizing in Travis Bickle’s skanky bed. (CHARLES MUDEDE) SIFF Film Center, Fri-Sat 7:30 pm, Sun 3, 6 pm.

PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES

The de facto Thanksgiving movie stars Steve Martin and John Candy as an odd couple, stuck together during a harrowing bout of holiday travel. A dark and strange plot twist directly precedes the obligatory schmaltz ending. Central Cinema, Fri 7 pm, Sat 3 pm, Sun-Mon 7 pm.

PUNK IN AFRICA

See Stranger Suggests, page 19. Northwest Film Forum, Fri-Sun 7, 9 pm.

THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS

Gene Hackman, Angelica Huston, Luke Wilson, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Owen Wilson, and Bill Murray (rocking a Professor Barnacle beard) are an extended family of neurotic geniuses whose bastard of a patriarch (Hackman) wants to bring them closer together. Too bad they hate his guts. The film is hilariously funny, dryly tender, and impeccably designed. (SEAN NELSON) Central Cinema, Fri-Mon 9:30 pm.

NOW PLAYING

12 YEARS A SLAVE

The brutal tale of 12 Years a Slave comes from the 1853 autobiography of Solomon Northup. Northup was a free black man living in New York with his wife and children when, in 1841, he was kidnapped, transported south, sold to the highest bidder, and subjected to a barbaric 12-year enslavement. In the film, Northup is played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, an accomplished British actor who does extraordinary work here. Throughout 12 Years are scenes of such barbarity, brought to life by actors talented enough to tap every nuance of that barbarity, that at times I had to look away. But amid the violence is so much identifiable humanity, you’ll leave sore. (DAVID SCHMADER)

ALL IS LOST

The nearly wordless All Is Lost focuses, with exhausting intensity, on a single man. (In the closing credits, he’s listed only as “Our Man.”) He’s played by Robert Redford—wrinkled, presumably, from both years and water. When a yacht he’s sailing hits a shipping container in the middle of the Indian Ocean, water rushes into his cabin with startling speed; everything that follows charts his

attempts to stay alive. Grim and quiet and melancholy, All Is Lost is tough and relentless—but perhaps the most impressive thing about it is that Redford and writer/director J.C. Chandor make this story as exciting and as touching as it is harrowing. (ERIK HENRIKSEN)

DALLAS BUYERS CLUB

When career partier Ron Woodroof contracted AIDS in 1986, the disease was still, in the public’s eye, very much

FESTIVE

CHRIS MARKER’S REVOLUTIONARY CINEMA

In 1962, the French filmmaker/genius Chris Marker made two important films, La Jetée and Le Joli Mai. Both are about Paris, but one, La Jetée, is a work of science fiction, and the other, Le Joli Mai is a documentary. The former is only 28 minutes long; the latter is a hefty 165 minutes. The former is composed of photographs; the other is shot on film. The former is about the death of the great city (nuclear war, rubble, radiation, rats, underground tunnels, fading memories, mad scientists); the latter is about the life of the city (ordinary people talking about their habits, politics, jobs, hopes, and dreams).

La Jetée is as pure as cinema can get—bold images, beautiful faces, moody music, a poetic but thrilling plot, and no fucking acting. In Le Joli Mai , we experience the moving image in its most ideal habitat, the urban. NWFF’s Chris Marker’s Revolutionary Cinema series opens with Le Joli Mai and then screens three other documentaries by the director, and one, To Chris Marker, An Unsent Letter , about the director, who was elusive and died last year at the age of 91. But Le Joli Mai must be seen with La Jetée , which can be found on the web but only in a quality that does great harm to its beauty. Chris Marker is the ghost of the French New Wave. (CHARLES MUDEDE)

Chris Marker’s Revolutionary Cinema runs Nov 22–25 at Northwest Film Forum. See nwfilm forum.org for full schedule.

SUGGESTS ARTS CHOW MUSIC FILM

limited to the realm of gay men. Woodroof overcame not only his deeply ingrained homophobia but, for many years, the disease itself: He smuggled in unapproved medications from Mexico, Japan, and elsewhere, selling them to HIV-positive patients while the FDA remained in Big Pharma’s thrall. It’s an interesting story, but the real meat of Dallas Buyers Club is Matthew McConaughey’s performance. He dropped 50 pounds, filtering his Texas good-ol’-boy schtick through Woodroof’s wiry bigotry and rage. The film sputters at the end with some directorial overreach, but for the first hour and a half, McConaughey’s exceptional performance is riveting enough. (NED LANNAMANN)

THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE

The best way to watch the second Hunger Games movie is to do what the folks hosting the press screening made me do: Before the film, spend a full hour of your life watching a live-stream of Yahoo!-branded professional starfuckers splooge their adoration at the outfits and bodies of the celebrities involved in the film, who were attending the real premiere in LA. The exuberant Hollywood hoopla surrounding this franchise—who’s tweeting what about star Jennifer Lawrence’s legs; “How do you pick out a dress for an event like this?!?!”—is a cunning preamble to the film itself, because it is exactly the kind of mind-numbing

DOCTOR WHAT?!?

LOOK, my brain is only so big and can hold only so much. That’s why, in order to ensure I have enough neurons left to write this column and drive a car, my brain automatically kicks out certain information—such as anything to do with The Lord of the Rings. WHO HAS TIME TO READ THESE BABY BOOKS ANYWAY??

And since I can’t know everything about television without suffering a stroke, I’ve had to ignore certain TV series entirely—for example? Doctor Who. Now, I know many of you ADORE Doctor Who. In fact, if you were to make a Venn diagram of Doctor Who fans, people who love The Lord of the Rings, and individuals with waaaaay too much time on their hands? You’d have one big fat solid circle.

However, despite my enforced ignorance, I have picked up a fact or two about Doctor Who—which I will now share with you in a definitive work entitled “THINGS I KNOW ABOUT DOCTOR WHO.”

[Note to fact-checking department: Don’t waste your time looking any of this stuff up. —Humpy]

Doctor Who is a British science-fiction show that debuted shortly after British people realized they could watch TV. The series revolves around a doctor (maybe a gynecologist or an obstetrician? Certainly not a dentist, HAW-HAW!) who has adventures in a time-traveling phone booth that’s insensitively called a “TARDIS.” (Note to producers: Consider switching to a time-traveling iPhone and calling it a

garbage the film is about to satirize. If you haven’t read the books or seen the first film, a recap: In a dystopian future, the uber-wealthy Capitol—the seat of both government and culture—forces the children from the outlying districts of a desperately barren North America to battle to the death for the entertainment of Capitol residents, people wealthy enough to gorge themselves and watch reality TV. (The metaphor is not intended to be subtle.)

This sequel is set in a time of riotous civil unrest in the districts, where the government is trying to quash a fullscale revolution. Jennifer Lawrence, as the game-winning protagonist Katniss, is expected to parade around the country in entertaining outfits so nobody notices that the districts’ masses look like subjects in a Dorthea Lange photo. As her mentor (Woody Harrelson) warns her, she is “a distraction so people forget what the real problems are.” So to watch actual Jennifer Lawrence, dolled up in an enormous, completely transparent gown, walk down a red carpet—to catch her blink, take a quick breath, look human for a second, and then pop on a big flashbulb-friendly smile… do I need to go on? The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, like the book it draws on, may be heavy-handed and a bit uneven. But its own obnoxious PR machine is a perfect foil to its message, making the questions the film raises about consent, distraction, and revolution feel freshly relevant and complex. (ANNA MINARD)

“DifferentlyAbleist.”)

Doctor Who wears an ugly long scarf and battles aliens called the “Daleks” that are intent on destroying all other forms of life—even sexy ones like Zac Efron. Doctor Who also battles cyborgs (an idea totally stolen from Battlestar Galactica), which he defeats with help from various traveling “companions” (none of whom are as sexy as Zac Efron).

OH! And get this! Whenever he “dies,” he’s reborn as an entirely different person. (No Zac Efron… yet.) This gives the actors portraying the doctor exactly ZERO leverage when it comes time for contract renegotiation. (“You want… a raise? Eff YOU, Doctor Who #7! Now get back to work before I call Zac Efron.”)

Ummm, I really don’t think there’s anything else to say about Doctor Who WAIT… if I remember correctly, Doctor Who also battles an evil master named “Sauron” who’s trying to obtain a magic ring in order to conquer the entirety of Middle-Earth— but like I said, what the hell do I know?

What I DO know is that Doctor Who is celebrating his (my god) 50th anniversary this week, and you can learn as much as you can possibly bear by watching BBCA as it presents a poop-ton of Who specials, including a dramatization of how the show originated, An Adventure in Space and Time (Fri Nov 22, 9 pm), a brand-new Who episode, “The Day of the Doctor” (Sat Nov 23, 11:50 am), and the one I should probably watch unless I want to remain eternally ignorant, Doctor Who Explained (Fri Nov 22, 8 pm).

Hey! That’s a great idea! If I watch this show, I’ll never have to worry about watching Doctor Who again! (Unless they introduce “Doctor Efron.” Wink-wink.)

Read Humpy’s weekly TV listings at THESTRANGER.COM

RESTAURANT/HOTELS/CLUBS

MCMENAMINS

and holidays. We are looking for applicants who have prev exp related exp and enjoy working in a busy customer service-oriented enviro. We are also willing to train! We offer opps for advancement and excellent benefits for eligible employees, including vision, med, chiro, dental and so much more! Please apply online 24/7 at www.mcmenamins.com or pick up a paper app at any McMenamins location. Mail to 430 N. Killingsworth, Portland OR, 97217 or fax: 503-221-8749. Call 503-952-0598 for info on other ways to apply. Please no phone calls or emails to individ locs! E.O.E.

VOLUNTEERS

COMMUNITY FOR YOUTH, a com-

munity supported/one-on-one mentoring program needs mentors for ‘13-’14 school year. Interested in becoming a mentor? Contact us today at info@ communityforyouth.org

DO YOU LOVE automobiles? Volunteer at Lemay Americas Car Museum! For information visit our web site: www.LemayMuseum.org or email Volunteer@LeMayMuseum.org.

HEMPFEST CENTRAL WANTS solid dependable volunteers for the offices and small storefront of the organization that produces the annual Seattle Hempfest. 206-364-4367

INTERESTED IN THE HEALTH EFFECTS OF SUGAR-SWEETENED BEVERAGES? See our web post for details. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

SALONS

TEN PACHI IS RECRUITIN G...

PAID RESEARCH

APARTMENTS

QUEEN ANNE $1,200

New 1 & 2 Bd top floor w/balcony & view. $1200-$1800 w/s/g included. Sorry no pets. Onsite laundry facilities. $600 deposit and 12 month lease. 206-286-9488 or text 206-422-1909.

ART STUDIO/CREATIVE

ARTIST/MUSIC REHEARSAL

STUDIOS Available. Art studios starting at $282/mo, Music studios at $345/ mo. Heated with 24 hour access. Great location. 206.682.2601

BEAUTIFUL, LUXURIOUS, INDIVIDUALLY Keyed Artist

WorkSpace/Office Space, Just Minutes

From Downtown. Urban WORKlofts has it all to promote your projects, and watch your following grow! Call us Today to set up a Tour. Space is VERY limited! 206.745.6684

THE ART OF small just got better.

ActivSpace in West Seattle offers private work/art studios from $195. Richard 206-935 5700

HOUSING WANTED DESPARATELY NEED LIVEABLE SPACE

Wanted Small Liveable Space, reasonable, can fix up. $350 or so. 27 years of house building, carpentry experience. Semi retired. 68yo on S.S. Call Andrews Whales 425-830-3716

ROOMMATES

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MASSAGE

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LAURIE’S MASSAGE

(206)919-2180

LIKE A JAPANESE Hot Springs

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WEST SEATTLE MASSAGE (253)217-9962 Come In And Relax With A Massage. The Ultimate In Full Body Head To Toe Relaxation. Variety Of Massage Strokes Specific To Every Clients Needs. 10AM - 6PM

STUDIES

DO YOU HAVE PTSD and want to STOP using alcohol or cut down to a safe level of drinking? Volunteers are needed for the APT Study examining two different types of treatment for people who have both alcohol problems and Posttraumatic

OTHER

PREGNANT?

ZENLIKE HOME. LOOKING 4 NSM who has no problem with gay roommates.Own bathroom. No couples,pets. Be full time student/full time employment. Room 10’ by 11’. W/d, d/w, internet,cable. Inc. util./cable. $250 deposit. 206-913-3627

CARS/TRUCKS

TEN PACHI modern salon - voted ELLE magazine’s best salons in the US, is looking for two, warm, intelligent, talented, open, calm and responsible stylists with strong interpersonal communication skills. we’re an extremely busy, fast-paced, *clean,*organized, thriving, smoke/drug-free salon. no clientele necessary. we have an overflow of clients. update your modern cutting and coloring skills and learn latest, modern perming techniques from japan. benefits, 4-day work-week, PTO. please be grounded, kind and smoke/drug/facial-piercing-free. multilinguists and stylists with academic degrees a plus. download application from website, attach it with your résumé and send to tenpachi@mac. com www.TenPachi.com TEN PACHI is an equal opportunity employer.

Exceptional Body Work

KING COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT, STATE OF WASHINGTON

SAMRAWIT GHEBREHIWET, Petitioner, v.

DAVID LAMON YOUNG, Respondent. No. 13-3-11166-1SEA.

SUMMONS The State of Washington to DAVID LAMON YOUNG, Respondent: You are hereby summoned to appear within of this summons, to wit, within sixty days after the 6th day of November 2013 and defend

com www.myspace.com/branavinix/ www.branavinix.com

MUSIC INSTRUCTION & SERVICES

ESTABLISHED BAND WITH international appeal and radio play looking for pro-level vocals. Must be willing to write new material based on band’s established style and sound. No growlers, thrashers, or clones of other Seattle singers. 425-225-5882

GREAT SAX SOLOS for your studio/live project. All styles. Call Danny Welsh at (206)501-7559 or dannywelsh@mac.com For more info and music go to: www.dannywelsh.com or www.myspace.com/dannywelshjazz

I SING, WRITE, PLAY SYNTH. Call 206 860 3534

LEGENDARY PIANIST AVAILABLE

Opened for Jeff Bridges! I’m Richard Peterson, 65 year old composer, arranger, and pianist. I’m available to play parties, weddings, clubs, shows, etc. $200/gig. Covers and originals. Please call 206-325-5271, Thank You! CD available. Must have a piano.

SEATTLE VOCALIST/ SONGWRITER/KEYBOARDS CALL MURPHY 206 860 3534

MUSICIANS WANTED

AVANT-ROCK BAND SEEKING guitarist. We are currently drums, bass and voice. We will be adding more instrumentation in time. Swans, My Bloody Valentine, Angels of Light, and traditional Spanish, Irish, Mediterranean, and Arabian music. No drugs. www.myspace.com/branavinix/206.547.2615

FEMALE VOCALIST WANTED for Electronic/Punk/Alternative band. Influences include Crystal Castles, Sleigh Bells, Beach House, Tennis, The Distillers. Needs high energy, strong performance abilities, and a desire to play live shows. Ages 18-21 Preferred. Call Skyler (970) 403-9575

KEYBOARD AND/OR MULTIINSTRUMENTALIST wanted for part time participation in modern rock band. Being able to play by ear helpful but not completely necessary. Openminded and good sense of humor a plus. gotsova@comcast.net Established and well-equipped band.

SINGER/SONGWRITER LOOKING FOR other musicians to collaborate with: multi-instrumentalists, acoustic/ electric guitar, keys, lap steel, etc. I write alt-country and Americana songs, Influences, Neil Young, Long Riders, Rave Ups, etc. 206-498-2897, tune. tom@gmail.com. Let’s shoot for Doe Bay!

SONGWRITER/SINGER LOOKING TO start a band- folkrock with energy and heart. Must be creative, passionate, and dedicated. Looking for bassist/drummer/piano/ whatever you got. Email ryan jo at ryanlindylive@gmail.com

RECORDING/REHEARSAL

MUSIC REHEARSAL STUDIOS and Artist Lofts for Rent. Starting at $200/ mo! Heated with 24 hr access! 206682-2601 addisononfourth.com

ONE SHARED REHEARSAL room @ $220/month including 36hr/month & private closet. Visit wildersoundstudios.com. Located in SODO Seattle. Contact Samantha 425-445-9165. s.wilder@wildersoundstudios.com

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY

For the Week of Nov 20

ARIES (March 21–April 19): The poet Charles Baudelaire prayed for help, but not to God—rather he prayed to the writer Edgar Allan Poe. Novelist Malcolm Lowry sometimes pleaded with God to give him insight, but he also prayed to the writer Franz Kafka. I really like this approach to seeking guidance and recommend it to you in the coming days. Which hero, dead or alive, could you call on to uplift you? What amazing character might bring you the inspiration you need? Be brazen and imaginative. The spirits could be of more help than you can imagine. Magic is afoot.

terwork, Der Ring des Nibelungen, takes 15 hours to perform. Flagstad was asked to name the single most important thing she needed in order to perform Wagner’s music with the excellence it demanded. Her answer: comfortable shoes. Regard that as good advice for your own life and work, Cancerian—both literally and metaphorically. It’s time to get really wellgrounded.

LEO (July 23–Aug 22): Have you ever been in a social situation where you really didn’t care what anyone thought of you and therefore felt absolutely free to act on your inner promptings? When was the last time you lost all your inhibitions and self-consciousness while making love? Can you truly say that sometime recently you have been totally responsive to your festive impulses? If you have experienced any blockages in expressing this type of energy, now is a perfect moment to fix that. You have a date with robust, innocent self-expression.

your raw material into graceful, resilient, enduring shapes.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22–Dec 21): Costa Rica will be closing its zoos in 2014. What will happen to the 400 or so animals that are housed there? They will have to be rehabilitated at animal rescue centers and then released into the wild. I suspect there will be a metaphorically similar process going on for you in the coming months, Sagittarius. Parts of your instinctual nature will, in a sense, be freed from captivity. You will need to find ways to retrain your animal intelligence how to function outside of the tame conditions it got used to.

TAURUS (April 20–May 20): US Confederate General Richard S. Ewell (1817–1872) sometimes experienced episodes in which he truly thought he was a bird. Princess Alexandria of Bavaria (1826–1875) believed that when she was young, she had eaten a glass piano. Then there was the Prussian military officer Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher (1742–1819), who imagined he was pregnant with an elephant. Sad and funny and crazy, right? And yet it’s my understanding that all of us have fixed delusions. They are less bizarre than those I cited, but they can still be debilitating. What are yours, Taurus? Do you secretly believe that a certain turning point in your past scarred you forever? Are you incorrectly racked with anger or guilt because of some event that may not have actually happened the way you remember it? Here’s the good news: Now is an excellent time to shed your fixed delusions.

GEMINI (May 21–June 20): Philosopher Eckhart Tolle suggests, “There may be one person who reflects your love back to you more clearly and more intensely than others.” For some of us, this numinous reflection comes from a special animal. Whatever is the case for you, Gemini, I urge you to devote extra time to your relationship with this creature in the next 14 days. Meditate on how you could provide more nurturing and inspiration. Brainstorm about the possibility of deepening your connection. What practical actions could you take to boost your loved one’s fortunes?

CANCER (June 21–July 22): The Cancerian soprano Kirsten Flagstad was regarded as one of the great operatic singers of the 20th century. Critic Desmond Shawe-Taylor said, “No one within living memory surpassed her in sheer beauty and consistency of line and tone.” She specialized in the operas of German composer Richard Wagner, whose mas-

VIRGO (Aug 23–Sept 22): Norwegian public television is experimenting with a phenomenon called Slow TV. In one reality show, the main character built a fire with logs and kept it burning for 12 hours.

In another program, patient viewers watched for five days as a cruise ship made its way along the Norwegian coast. A third show featured a woman knitting a sweater from start to finish. I wish you would get hooked on slow-motion activities like those, Virgo. Maybe it would help you lower your thoughts-per-minute rate and influence you to take longer, deeper breaths and remember that relaxation is an art you can cultivate. And then you would be in righteous alignment with the cosmic rhythms.

LIBRA (Sept 23–Oct 22): You’re smarter than you think you are, and soon you will be even smarter. Previously inaccessible wisdom is seeping up from the depths of your subconscious mind, making its way to your conscious awareness. Your eyes are noticing more than they usually do. Your memory is working at peak levels. And your enhanced ability to entertain paradoxical ideas is giving you special insight into the nature of reality. What will you do with this influx of higher intelligence? I suggest you focus its full force on one of your knottiest problems.

SCORPIO (Oct 23–Nov 21): The Paris Review interviewed Mexican poet Octavio Paz. “Just how much revising do you do?” the interviewer asked. “I revise incessantly,” Paz replied. “Some critics say too much, and they may be right. But if there’s a danger in revising, there is much more danger in not revising. I believe in inspiration, but I also believe that we’ve got to help inspiration, restrain it, and even contradict it.” I bring this up, Scorpio, because I believe you are ripe for a phase of intense revision. Inspiration has visited you a lot lately, but now it will subside for a while so you can wrangle all

CAPRICORN (Dec 22–Jan 19): Will fate kick your sweet ass sometime soon? Quite possibly. You may be compelled to face up to the consequences of your unloving actions or unconscious decisions. I’m pleased to tell you, however, that you might be able to dramatically minimize or even neutralize the butt-thumping. How? Go over the events of the last 11 months and identify times when you weren’t your very best self or didn’t live up to your highest ideals. Then perform rituals of atonement. Express your desire to correct wrong turns. Give gifts that will heal damaged dynamics.

AQUARIUS (Jan 20–Feb 18): Grammywinning singer-songwriter Bill Withers became a big star in the 1970s with hits like “Ain’t No Sunshine” and “Lean on Me.” But he hasn’t recorded a new album since 1985, nor has he toured. What happened? In Still Bill, the documentary film about his life, Withers says, “I watch other people show off and I say, ‘Man, I used to want to show off.’ If I could just get, you know, moved to. I need a little injection in my showin’ off gland.” I wish you could get an injection like that, too, Aquarius. I’d like to see you show off more. Not in a contrived, over-the-top, Lady Gaga–esque way. Rather, the purpose would be to get more aggressive in showing people who you are and what you

PISCES (Feb 19–March 20): I have a feeling that your value will be rising in the coming weeks. An attractive person you thought was out of your league may express curiosity about you. You could get an offer to do

SAVAGE LOVE

I’m a heterosexual guy in my early 20s. I’ve been dating my girlfriend for about six months, and we’ve been having some fights recently. The problem: I have a high sex drive in comparison to hers. I want to be intimate on a weekly basis (at least!), and she’s told me that she’s more of a once-every-three-weeks-or-so person. I’m trying not to put pressure on her. I don’t want her to feel uncomfortable—she’s a virgin (no penetration), and the thought of the pain of that first time scares her a bit. That said, physical intimacy with her—developing that bond, even without intercourse—is important to me and a key part of what I believe is a healthy relationship. I do my best to be understanding, but I’m not sure how to bridge this gap.

And no more flaming/stunt drinks, ferfucksake!

Love Is Building Intimacy During Outset

While it’s great that you’re understanding of your girlfriend’s sensitivities, LIBIDO, and while it’s commendable that you view nonpenetrative sex as fulfilling, you’re running the risk of “understanding” her into a relationship that makes you both unhappy. Because someone who wants sex multiple times per week will eventually be made miserable by someone who wants sex far less than once a month (which is what the “or so” at the end of “once-every-three-weeks- or-so” means), and vice versa— being with you will make your girlfriend miserable in the long run, too.

I get e-mails daily from miserable people on both sides of this divide, LIBIDO, from people with high libidos who married lows and from people with low libidos who married highs. The highs are miserable because years of sexual rejection have shredded their sexual self-esteem, or they feel like monsters after years of being “indulged” with going-through-the-motions sex by barely willing and clearly miserable partners. The lows are miserable because going through the motions makes them miserable or they’re sick of constantly being pestered for sex and made to feel inadequate or broken when they pass.

You’re young and straight, LIBIDO, and the culture tells the young and the straight that they must be monogamous (because sex is so important) and that they shouldn’t take sexual compatibility into consideration when picking a partner (because sex is so unimportant). Other shit matters, too, of course—stuff like emotional compatibility, similar life goals, being on the same page about kids, etc. But basic sexual compatibility matters, too, and its absence will eventually undermine everything else.

By which I mean to say, LIBIDO: You’ve been dating this girl long enough to know that you’re not a match—you’re not sexually compatible— and that’s reason enough to end this relationship.

Last month at a house party , my boyfriend accidentally burned my chin, neck, and cleavage during a clumsily executed volcano shot. I was literally on fire for a few seconds. Some doctor appointments, burn creams, bandages, and awkward scabbing later, I’m healing nicely. My problem is, our sex life has become much more complicated. Before the accident, we were having sex only every week or so. But now he stares sadly at my neck wound (which still has a red line going down it) every time he looks at me. It’s very hard to feel sexy when you’re constantly looked at with pity, regret, and concern, and the stress of being sexually frustrated is fueling other stresses. I just want a way out of this sad circle we’ve found ourselves in.

Burned

Your boyfriend can’t stare at a neck wound he can’t see. So until you’ve fully recovered, B, turn off the lights or blindfold him or lace him into a leather hood—or all three—and have sex the way the good lord intended us to, i.e., in the dark with our pitiful/regretful/hooded boyfriends.

My boyfriend and I are in our mid/early 20s. We have been dating for a little over 10 months. We have a strong emotional bond and are always communicative and honest with anything and everything. We have an amazing and adventurous sex life, and we have been fantasizing about cuckolding for about two months. We are both extremely turned on by the idea, but I have reservations about doing this in such a young relationship. Unlike married couples who have years to lay an emotional foundation, my boyfriend and I have less to fall back on. I am excited by the idea of this, but I am scared I will end up feeling used. I am also afraid he will not be able to handle the reality of the humiliation. It turns him on to talk about it, but he has never done this. What happens if we are emotionally wrecked afterward? I’m afraid we’re playing with fire. I love him and do not want to lose him, but this is something that excites both of us. What should we do?

Young And Restless Duo

Cuckolding realities are a lot more challenging than cuckolding fantasies—emotionally and logistically. So you’re right to be nervous, YARD. But relationship longevity doesn’t guarantee cuckolding success. Good communication, mutual desire (so fucking important with this fantasy!), and a commitment to take things slowly-bordering-on-glacially are far better predictors of success. And if you take it slow— if you limit your cuckolding play to dirty talk for 10 months at least—you’ll have more of that experience/trust/security stuff to fall back on if and when you find the right bull/stud/lover.

I’m a 24-year-old lesbian, and I have been with my girlfriend for almost three years. We have both been GGG about things to do with each other in the bedroom, and I’m generally happy with our sex life. Since I am e-mailing you, though, there is a “but.” She is bi and has always wanted to have a threesome with a guy and another girl. I am all for that in theory, but I have a hard time emotionally. I have anxiety. I’m in therapy and on medication, and even still it’s really difficult for me to wrap my head around sex with new people. I would spend the entire time silently freaking out. I am not sure how I feel about her getting fucked by someone else, even if she’s fucking me at the same time. I really want to do this for her, but I don’t want it to go poorly because of my issues. Do you have any advice for navigating something like this that your partner really wants but you don’t? For how to get game not just in letter but in spirit?

Having Anxiety Raises Difficulties

I’m going to give you the same answer I gave YARD: Talk about it, fantasize about it, be open to it, but take it glacially. Guys who are interested in sexing two women aren’t that difficult to find, HARD, so trust that the right guy—one who makes you comfortable, one who is unthreatening—will come into your lives at some point. If you’re worried about how you might react to watching your girlfriend have sex with that special someone else, she shouldn’t have intercourse with that special someone else the first time you get together. Make out, roll around, engage in a little mutual masturbation. If that feels good—if it doesn’t make you anxious or freak you out— make a plan to get together again.

This week on the Savage Lovecast, hear the tale of the lesbian roller-derby sleepover: savagelovecast.com

mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter

ADOPTION

Devoted, nurturing, loving gay couple looking to adopt first baby into a family offering education, fun, travel, laughter, and unconditional love and support. Call, TEXT, or email anytime about Kyle & Adrian; 971-238-9651 or kyleandadrianfamily@gmail.com or visit kyleandadrianadoption.com

Ahh! Time to get *Ahh-thorized* 24/7 Patient Verification

Doctor-Nurse Owned Holistic Center 425-243-2441 or 888.508.5428 Seattle - Issaquah - Ellensburg AdvancedHolisticHealth.org

Be an Egg Donor

Are you a healthy woman in your 20’s who loves to help others, or know someone who is?

We would love to talk with you! Generous compensation. $250 Referral Bonus Call: 206-515-0042 or email: DonorEggBank@pnwfertility.com

Donate Your Car, Truck or Motorcycle Support Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound.

We offer free pickup of used vehicles in most cases running or not. Tax deductible. (206)

FREE CERVICAL CANCER SCREENING

Age: 21+. Volunteers will receive either self-collected at home HPV testing or regular Pap test screening. Up to $200 compensation for study completion. Call 206-543-3327 or e-mail homehpv@uw.edu.

HAPPY HAULER.com

Debris Removal 206-784-0313

Major credit cards accepted LEGENDARY PIANIST AVAILABLE

Opened for Jeff Bridges! Clubs, Weddings, Parties

I’m Richard Peterson, 65 year old composer, arranger, and pianist. I’m available to play parties, weddings, clubs, shows, etc. $200/gig. Covers and originals. Please call 206-325-5271, Thank You! CD available. Must have piano!|

SEX OFFENDER REGISTRATION GOT YOU DOWN?

We may be able to help to remove that requirement. The Meryhew Law Group, PLLC (206)264-1590 www.meryhewlaw.com

TEASE Pin-Up

Be a pin-up! Featuring costumes, hair + makeup, and retouching. Women-owned and operated. www.teasepinup.com